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American Morning
Minding Your Business: The Taxman Mistaketh
Aired September 05, 2003 - 07:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Do you have a tax question for the IRS? Well, don't ask them. Probably a good chance they're wrong.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Wow! What a story here.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, this is really something, Soledad. Apparently -- this reminds me of the mayor of Rhode Island going out and spying on his workers. The same thing here. The Treasury Department went out to those IRS taxpayers' assistance centers and asked them questions. They posed as taxpayers apparently. And you know what? A lot of the answers the IRS experts gave were wrong -- were wrong.
So, if you're calling up and asking them for help, you might be wrong about 50 percent of the time.
Let's take a look at some of these numbers here. We have a chart that shows just how inaccurate -- no, they were accurate, Soledad, 45 percent of the time, thank you very much. That's not bad. Twenty- eight percent of the time it was just completely incorrect. Twelve percent, incomplete -- that's also bad.
Now, this is my favorite, the last one. Twelve percent of the time they told taxpayers, hey, do your own work, read your own bleeping manual in other words. And let me tell you something: that violates an IRS policy. I mean, they're not allowed to tell you to go away and do it yourself. I mean, that's what they're there for.
O'BRIEN: But I wonder what happens -- you know, let's say you get audited, and you basically go back and say, well, I called the help line, and this is the advice I got.
SERWER: Oh, and you know what's going to happen there, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: I mean, legally (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SERWER: I mean, they're just going to say...
O'BRIEN: This has lawsuit all over it.
SERWER: Yes, it does. But, you can't sue the IRS. I mean, you can try, but, you know, just forget it. I mean, you have no recourse except to try to appeal, and it's a terrible, terrible mess.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk a little bit about the recording industry.
SERWER: Yes, this is another good one here. The Recording Industry Association has been issuing all of those subpoenas to people who have been file sharing, or file stealing as I like to call it, file stealing, and downloading music through KaZa (ph) and other services like that.
Now, here's what they've got. They've got a file sharing amnesty program coming out next week. Here is how this works. They're going to send you a sheet of paper that you notarize and say, I will delete all of those illegally downloaded songs off of my computer, and I promise never to do it again. I promise never to -- I don't know if this one is going to work. But these are people they've targeted already. In other words, you either sign this thing ore we're going to give you a subpoena.
So, you know, this battle goes on and on.
O'BRIEN: The Holiday Inn towel thing?
SERWER: The towel -- the terrible towel amnesty, that's right.
O'BRIEN: And you have the last part of your series today.
SERWER: That's right. And this is the most surprising. While we're talking about jobs in America, "Where the Jobs Are," this one is just great fun. It is catching critters in the suburbs. As more and more people move further out into the woods, critters are coming into people's homes. This is a booming industry, people who catch skunks. And look here? Gators in a swimming pool. It's a big business, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Is that a good paying job, to catch an alligator in a swimming pool?
SERWER: It's probably a risky business, right? No, it's actually not bad pay.
O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SERWER: It's not that bad paying. I mean, you know, it's a job. It's a job, right?
O'BRIEN: Right. All right, we'll look forward to that. Thanks, Andy.
SERWER: Good, OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired September 5, 2003 - 07:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Do you have a tax question for the IRS? Well, don't ask them. Probably a good chance they're wrong.
Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Wow! What a story here.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes, this is really something, Soledad. Apparently -- this reminds me of the mayor of Rhode Island going out and spying on his workers. The same thing here. The Treasury Department went out to those IRS taxpayers' assistance centers and asked them questions. They posed as taxpayers apparently. And you know what? A lot of the answers the IRS experts gave were wrong -- were wrong.
So, if you're calling up and asking them for help, you might be wrong about 50 percent of the time.
Let's take a look at some of these numbers here. We have a chart that shows just how inaccurate -- no, they were accurate, Soledad, 45 percent of the time, thank you very much. That's not bad. Twenty- eight percent of the time it was just completely incorrect. Twelve percent, incomplete -- that's also bad.
Now, this is my favorite, the last one. Twelve percent of the time they told taxpayers, hey, do your own work, read your own bleeping manual in other words. And let me tell you something: that violates an IRS policy. I mean, they're not allowed to tell you to go away and do it yourself. I mean, that's what they're there for.
O'BRIEN: But I wonder what happens -- you know, let's say you get audited, and you basically go back and say, well, I called the help line, and this is the advice I got.
SERWER: Oh, and you know what's going to happen there, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: I mean, legally (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SERWER: I mean, they're just going to say...
O'BRIEN: This has lawsuit all over it.
SERWER: Yes, it does. But, you can't sue the IRS. I mean, you can try, but, you know, just forget it. I mean, you have no recourse except to try to appeal, and it's a terrible, terrible mess.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk a little bit about the recording industry.
SERWER: Yes, this is another good one here. The Recording Industry Association has been issuing all of those subpoenas to people who have been file sharing, or file stealing as I like to call it, file stealing, and downloading music through KaZa (ph) and other services like that.
Now, here's what they've got. They've got a file sharing amnesty program coming out next week. Here is how this works. They're going to send you a sheet of paper that you notarize and say, I will delete all of those illegally downloaded songs off of my computer, and I promise never to do it again. I promise never to -- I don't know if this one is going to work. But these are people they've targeted already. In other words, you either sign this thing ore we're going to give you a subpoena.
So, you know, this battle goes on and on.
O'BRIEN: The Holiday Inn towel thing?
SERWER: The towel -- the terrible towel amnesty, that's right.
O'BRIEN: And you have the last part of your series today.
SERWER: That's right. And this is the most surprising. While we're talking about jobs in America, "Where the Jobs Are," this one is just great fun. It is catching critters in the suburbs. As more and more people move further out into the woods, critters are coming into people's homes. This is a booming industry, people who catch skunks. And look here? Gators in a swimming pool. It's a big business, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Is that a good paying job, to catch an alligator in a swimming pool?
SERWER: It's probably a risky business, right? No, it's actually not bad pay.
O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SERWER: It's not that bad paying. I mean, you know, it's a job. It's a job, right?
O'BRIEN: Right. All right, we'll look forward to that. Thanks, Andy.
SERWER: Good, OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
