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H&R Block Goofs on Its Own Taxes
omar.nyc writes "Red Herring reports tax preparation giant H&R Block, manufacturer of TaxCut and other tax software, goofed on its own taxes. The miscalculation on its state income taxes are liable by $32 million. This will reduce Block's fiscal year 2005 earnings by $0.02 per share and $0.02 per share in fiscal year 2004." From the article: "Besides the problems that Block had with its own tax prep needs, the company also experienced difficulties with the technology in its offices last month that hit its bottom line early in tax season. 'Technology problems across the H&R Block network in early January impacted our ability to serve clients in those crucial early weeks,' said Block Chairman Mark A. Ernst. He said the problems had been corrected, but they impacted the company's ability to serve 250,000 clients at that time of year."
With Congress, the ones who engineered this incomprehensible beast of a code which is volumes long and confusing enough that even a large tax-filing corporation can get caught by it.
Personally, I don't see how anyone can reasonably expect to avoid becoming a criminal with more laws on the books than can possibly be read in a human lifespan. I am completely unacquainted with 99% of the laws in this country, and for all I know I may have unwittingly violated a fair portion of those.
The law should be terse enough for Joe Schmoe to learn it all in a high school class or in a few weeks of diligent study. Anything more is just plain unreasonable.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
If anything this should give people a clue that the tax system is broken. Not only is it overly complicated it also a fraud perpetuated on the American people. It relies on ignorance and to some extent class warfare to continue in its current form.
Watch politicians. They will consistenly play up the fact that corporations don't pay their fair share while conviently relying on the fact that any taxes paid by a corporation are paid by its customers. It is this embedded taxaxtion that hides the true amount of tax load that is place on every citizen of the country. The best time to witness the hypocrisy of Congress is when certain corporations report their profit. The Congressmen will make big speeches about how all that money is being "stolen" from the American people and that the profits are obscene whereas the only obscenity is Congress's appetite for OUR money. They love to ignore the profit per share which is the true measure of a corporations profitability all because they know most Americans are ignorant of how the system works.
The system is made so complex to keep the dirty little secret from being easily identifiable. If the Congress and Administration were truly after true tax reform they would make the system transparent. This can be done in one of two ways. A flat tax or a National Sales Tax (aka The Fair Tax). While neither system is perfect they both offer something that the current system doesn't and that is transparency.
Besides being overly complex, which results in hundreds of billions from individuals and corporations to stay in compliance, it is chocked full of exceptions for every little group that manages to bend Congresses's ear. They have created a self sustaining system. Groups give money as gifts and reelection money to maintain their status. None of them have the people's intrest in their hearts, not Congress, not the Administration, and certainly not these groups.
It is a total fraud.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.