A.L.E.R.T.
(America Law Education Rights & Taxation)
12-11-2001
IRS Workers
Destroy 71,257 Tax Returns
Foreword from Gordon Phillips --
Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, now this. It's just awful. You sensitive types had better stop right here.
It appears that workers at a Pennsylvania IRS processing center run by Mellon Bank (gasp!) hid or destroyed about 71,257 returns 'worth' $1.2 billion because they were 'unable to keep up with the workload.' No doubt this was an 'equal opportunity' work site.
$1.2 billion! Let's see, that's one-thousand, two-hundred million. What a waste. That would have bought at least a few more cruise missiles, or an overnight in the Lincoln Bedroom. This is an outrage. All those innocent trees.
Seventy-one thousand returns would probably fit pretty easily in the bed of a pickup truck. Maybe Daryl in the IRS mail room needed just a skoosh more traction over the rear wheels what with a cold winter coming on in Pittsburgh.
Being the curious and inventive type, perhaps he'll haul them down to the Knob Creek Club in Kentucky this spring and experiment with how many boxes full it would take lined up front to back to stop a continuous stream of 50 caliber rounds (http://www.machinegunshoot.com).
Of course, for the record, I would never advocate destroying federal evidence in so untidy and violent a manner. You know, like federal judges do after federally untidy events like Waco and OKC? For thorough and tidy destruction of federal evidence, you can't beat a cross-cut shredder. Like the industrial strength Oliver North model (which replaced the Fawn Hall model) that Hillary uses for continuous around-the-clock evidence mulching.
That California postal worker who got caught with 20 years worth of undelivered 4th class mail in his garage sure could have used one! Maybe old Daryl has one in his basement and those returns will reemerge one day as compost or kindling. We'll have to keep a close eye on this one.
Depriving federal coffers of a cool $1.2 billion couldn't come at a worse time, what with Mr. Greenspan still blowing up the economy like an immense party balloon. Read the story below and try to suppress your anguish.
Then, maybe, head to a remote pay phone (armed with a Radio Shack voice changer) and give Mellon Financial Corporation a call at (412) 234-5000 to congratulate them for such a bold and patriotic display of monkey wrenching in such interesting times as these.
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40,000 Tax Returns Lost/Missing from Mellon Bank
August 30, 2001
http://www.rumormillnews.net/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=10966
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As many as 40,000 federal tax returns and tax payment checks totaling more than $800 million have been lost or destroyed at a processing center operated by a Pittsburgh bank for the Internal Revenue Service, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
The number of returns affected is far greater than the 1,800 that was thought to be involved when the problem with the Pittsburgh contractor, Mellon Bank, was disclosed earlier this year, the newspaper said.
The bank has not said what happened, but said it does not appear to be a case of identity theft or stolen checks, the newspaper reported.
Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, was quoted as saying IRS investigators told that 'the dollar impact has escalated to $810 million.' The Montana Democrat said 40,000 or more tax returns and tax payments from the Northeast may have been 'concealed or destroyed' at the Pittsburgh facility.
IRS officials told the newspaper they have been working for several months to track down missing documents from the Mellon processing center.
The Post quoted sources as saying that it appeared the IRS contract penalized Mellon for unprocessed returns and checks rather than rewarding it for those it did process.
'The system was flawed,' one source said. 'It gave them incentive to stick the payments in a drawer. It was almost cost-effective for Mellon to do that. There was no reward for timely processing.'
Mellon's contact has been canceled, and the bank has fired some workers and laid off others, the Post said.
According to the report, Mellon Chairman Martin McGuinn said in an e-mail to employees last week that the bank lost the contract 'after we found that a significant number of taxpayer submissions had been hidden, and in some instances, destroyed.'
Tax returns and payments from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and upstate New York were processed at the center, the newspaper said.
The affected taxpayers will have any penalties waived and replacement returns and checks credited as on time, IRS officials were quoted as saying.
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Tax Return Snafu Bigger Than Thought
December 8, 2001
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Employees at an IRS processing center run by Mellon Bank may have hidden or destroyed more tax returns and payments than originally thought, according to recent figures received by the Senate Finance Committee.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the finance chairman, said the center may have mishandled as many as 71,257 returns worth $1.2 billion, about 31,000 more than first believed.
Mellon Bank, which operated the facility until August, earlier disclosed that employees there hid or destroyed about 40,000 tax returns and checks worth at least $810 million because they were unable to keep up with the workload. Authorities said that amount could grow as the investigation continues.
A grand jury began investigating after IRS officials received calls in May from people whose tax payments checks had not cleared.
The problem affected only filers in Northeastern states who owed money on their 2000 tax returns and mailed them to Pittsburgh.
Mellon lost its contract to run the center because of what bank chairman Martin McGuinn called 'gross disregard' and the failure by employees to follow company policy.
Taxpayers affected by the mishandled returns were not penalized by the IRS and the agency has spent about $2 million righting ensuing problems.
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