Comments on: An interesting update from the IRS

By: Mitch Gurney

Mitch Gurney — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:22:00 +0000

I am sure they could make improvements – there is always room for improvement – in their data and reports. But we do live in a far more complex world. Think about all the veriables involved in just collecting data as it relates to taxes…there a mulitple deadlines and filing dates, indvidual returns due by April 15th, then extension filing dates and corporate fiscal year end reprots and filing dates which vary and so forth…it can take several years for all the contributing factors to finally be accumulated just to reflect the results for a certain year, for 2007 for example…I would think that an analyist would need to accurately identify which report to use depending on the objectives of their analysis.

By: vjb

vjb — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:01:33 +0000

I have in the past and the answer I got was that their work is based on samples so I will continue to use this space to DEMAND accurate verifiable data that we can take to the bank and not samples.

Doubt very seriously if they listen, but I want you to think about something.

The government, including the health care department releases numbers every day that effect your and my jobs and everybody’s elses, yet the data is incomplete and inaccurate and based on samples or phone samples or other such garbage.

As we are hired, we submit a W-4 which tells them we are working.
As we are fired, a report is submitted.
As they issue us a pay check, a report is submitted.

There is absolutely no reason that they cannot have accurate, verifiable data other then red tape and turf wars and I am not willing to accept that and I will continue to work toward changing the status quo because it needs to be changed if we really want to steer this ship called America.

By: Mitch Gurney

Mitch Gurney — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:48:35 +0000

You might want to contact them to find this out…I noticed each of the reports have phone numbers listed. I did notice that each report appears to include different data and serves different purposes…so you may want to find out from them what each reports purpose is and the bases of the data to better determine which ones of a mulitude of reports they issue throughout the year best serve your needs for the anaylsis you intend to do.

By: Virgil Bierschwale

Virgil Bierschwale — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:51:27 +0000

But why the differences between the figures.

Anytime I find a discrepancy between two sets of figures for the same time I begin to suspect both of them as being garbage.

By: Mitch Gurney

Mitch Gurney — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:20:01 +0000

The release of the Statistics of Income Bulletin IRS report has to do with a schedule established by the IRS on a quarterly bases dating back many years. Look on page 298 of the report at this link you will see that it is published different times through the year incorporating different data Public Release of SOI Information see pg 298
http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/article/0,,id=215634,00.html