Politics & Finances

An Open Letter to Congress - From TaxMama

An Open Letter to Congress - From TaxMama

This is an open letter to Congress relating to year-end tax law enactment from your TaxMama® - Eva Rosenberg, EA:

Dear Legislators:

You have been elected by the citizens of your state to act in their best interests. That means the best interest of everyone in your state, not just your political party. You are also expected to do your jobs on a timely basis, just as we do.

When it comes to tax laws, over a million people are involved in updating tax software, coding it, using it, and making sure it’s accurate. I am talking about the staff of all the software companies, the Internal Revenue Service, the state legislators and their software developers, as well as about 800,000 tax professionals with Preparer Tax ID numbers (PTINs). We have all done our jobs and have gotten everything ready for the coming tax season. When you pass laws late in December, we all have to do our work all over again – and it’s impossible to be ready to process and prepare tax returns in a timely fashion. Filings will be late, software will have errors, and the IRS will still be issuing interpretations and Revenue Procedures for the next year or so.

In addition to the million members of the tax professional community, consider the 155 million tax return filers, most of whom are your constituents.

I wouldn’t be grousing if you were not making this a habit. But this keeps happening. One year, you waited until February (Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 or BPA) to pass laws retroactive to the year that had ended. In fact, this time, your Further Consolidated Appropriations Act included extenders on tax provisions for two years ago – long after taxpayers have already filed those tax return. (Those provisions should have been included in the BPA. Why weren’t they?)

It turns out, if you look at the legislation, the main body of the laws you passed in December were ready in June (see notes below). Why did it need to take another four to six months to sit down and get this passed? Frankly, this taxpayer says you’re not doing your jobs. Stop fighting with each other and start taking care of your American cousins.

Sincerely,

TaxMama®

Eva Rosenberg, EA

Notes:

SECURE Act: Passed the House on May 23, 2019 – sent to Senate on June 3, 2019

Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019: Introduced in the House on June 18, 2019

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Eva Rosenberg, EA

Eva Rosenberg, EA

Eva Rosenberg, EA is the publisher of TaxMama.com, where your tax questions are answered. Eva is the author of several books and ebooks, including Small Business Taxes Made Easy. Eva teaches a tax pro course at IRSExams.com and other tax courses at http://www.cpelink.com/teamtaxmama.

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