Faces Of Foreclosure

Dr. Seuss’ Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? (Classic Seuss)
A favorite economics lesson is from Dr. Seuss’ “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?”

Oh, the jobs people work at! Out west, near Hawtch-Hawtch, there’s a Hawtch-Hawtcher Bee-Watcher. His job is to watch . . . to keep both his eyes on the lazy town bee. A bee that is watched will work harder, you see.

Well . . . he watched and he watched. But, in spite of his watch, that bee didn’t work any harder. Not mawtch.

So then somebody said, “Our old bee-watching man just isn’t bee-watching as hard as he can. He ought to be watched by another Hawtch-Hawtcher. The thing that we need is a Bee-Watcher-Watcher.”

WELL . . .The Bee-Watcher Watcher watched the Bee-Watcher. He didn’t watch well. So another Hawtch-Hawtcher had to come in as a Watch-Watcher-Watcher.

And today all the Hawtchers who live in Hawtch-Hawtch are watching on Watch-Watcher-Watchering-Watch, Watch-Watching the Watcher who’s watching that bee. You’re not a Hawtch-Hawtcher. You’re lucky you see.

Why are those at the heads of the investment banking businesses worldwide trying to convince us that this entire sink hole began only a year or so ago, when in fact the sink hole has been being positioned by those very actors, for decades. How and when did America become the “sloppy society?” The way our country is run is quite inelegant.

The following is from a variety of sources: “Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Recovery Act,” “Sovereign Society,” and a gentleman self-described as a “Disgruntled Republication.”

Federal workers owe more than $3B in back taxes
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER (AP) – Dec 15, 2009

WASHINGTON — Federal workers owed the government more than $3 billion in back income taxes in 2008, just as federal tax revenues started to suffer from the recession.

More than 276,000 federal employees and retirees owed back income taxes as of Sept. 30, 2008, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service. The $3.04 billion owed was up from $2.7 billion owed by federal employees and retirees in 2007.

Among cabinet agencies, the Department of Housing and Urban Development had the highest delinquency rate, at just over 4 percent. The Treasury Department, which includes the IRS, had the lowest delinquency rate, at 0.98 percent.

Overall, the 9.7 million federal workers included in the data had a delinquency rate of about 2.9 percent.

“It’s not right for a few to shirk their obligations, and it’s especially offensive that these tax delinquencies come from federal employees and contractors,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

The IRS doesn’t provide a comparable delinquency rate for income taxes paid by the public. The nation’s overall compliance rate, which includes taxes paid by small businesses and corporations, has hovered around 85 percent for decades, according to IRS statistics.

Most residents who owe back income taxes file returns but cannot pay the full amount at tax time, said IRS spokesman Anthony Burke. Others have their tax bills increased through audits and cannot pay the higher bill.

The statistics on federal employees do not include those who are on payment plans. The IRS doesn’t publicize the data, but makes it available upon request. The data was first reported by Washington radio station WTOP.

The recession has put a big dent in federal tax receipts. Individual income tax receipts for the fiscal year that ended in September were down about 20 percent from the year before.

I recently discovered that the servicer of my mortgage made TWENTY-TWO mistakes (that I know of) during 2009 with regard to my mortgage! That, of course, pushed me into wondering what in the hell is going on? . . . the IRS has trouble even with routine tasks. According to another IG report, the agency has a staggering 70 percent error rate in its processing of taxpayer identification numbers for individual taxpayers:

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) today publicly released its review of the IRS’s processing of applications for Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). TIGTA reviewed a sample of ITIN applications and found that almost 70% contained significant errors and/or raised concerns that should have prevented the issuance of an ITIN. The IRS estimates that it has issued more than 14 million ITINs as of December 2008. ITINs are intended to provide tax identification numbers to resident and nonresident alien individuals who may have U.S. tax reporting or filing obligations but do not qualify for Social Security Numbers, which generally are only issued to U.S. citizens and individuals legally admitted to the U.S. . . . ”The number of individual income tax returns filed using ITINs and reporting wage income has increased by 247 percent from 2001 to 2008,” commented J. Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. “If the IRS continues to issue ITINs without proper verification, the risk of fraudulently filed returns – along with fraudulently claimed refunds – will continue to rise,” added Inspector General George.

Everything by Dr. Seuss
Just think how much fun it will be when the IRS is in charge of determining those of us who should get fined or jailed for noncompliance with government-run healthcare! No wonder so many taxpayers put a flat tax or national sales tax on their Christmas lists.

Perhaps Dr. Seuss is our only hope . . . We’ve added a link to a collection of his books, including Dr. Geisel Goes Green (warnings against mindless progress), The Lorax, Mr. Brown Can Moo!, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish and others. The Economics of Dr. Seuss