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For those who have a desire to help, one place which usually does not bite politically is foster care / CASA. The bite is you do have to become a little more self aware about town as you may run into a "parent" who believes you helped take their child from them, but in most cases, those folks don't bother seeking revenge. I just became a CASA last fall and finished my first case 3 weeks ago. I get my second child/family this evening. Definitely no politics. For those unfamiliar, CASA is Court Appointed Special Advocate and the advocate is a trained volunteer for the child/children. So many children need an advocate, someone just on their side only.

even before the decline of the USPS, I'd get 30 day letters from the IRS that were dated 3 weeks prior to receiving them, leaving little time to respond. The postmark on our correspondence is the official record of the date received--maybe their correspondence should have a postmark as well?

The KEY for CASA is the person is on the infant/child/teenager's side, and only on their side. They have a "cleaner" influence than the social worker, "parent(s)", and even cleaner than any foster parent. There is no "book" for getting the best result for the child, so their CASA worker is the one to speak for them and make sure they get all their needs met using whatever resources are available. Interestingly, none of our fosters had a CASA worker that I can recall. Lack of volunteers was the issue. In the case of our first adopted, we petitioned the court to be declared de-facto parents, and became precedent setting our naive selves. Somehow, the universe paired us up with an attorney who was looking for such a case! One minute in the foster system can (state dependent) open up a lifetime of access to benefits for the child. The child needs to learn these things too, as it may be up to only them some day. While we are no longer active foster parents (we do emergency respite only), we do participate by helping foster families, adoptive families, and families with special needs children/adult children navigate the "system".

I'm reviving this to say that I'm relieved not to have this responsibility or risk except for my own corporation. I'll still have to deal with the government portal, but only for myself and that's it. I spoke with an attorney from the firm that handles my remaining corps and LLCs that will be handling this reporting. He said it's all up in the air and sure to be a nightmare when people question the need, fail to respond, or notify them with changes. They're not sure what the charge will be but sure it will not be inexpensive.

It's not that the IRS is having trouble understanding and applying this particular area of tax law that is troubling and evidence of cultural rot. It's that the IRS attorney's find it OK to back date court documents. If this was an isolated incident, you might conclude that this is a rouge employee stepping outside the rules. "But there are other watchdog claims made by three other partnerships—Arden Row Assets LLC, Basswood Aggregates LLC, and Delwood Resources LLC—who are asking the IRS to admit its staff backdated penalty approval forms in their cases as well" (https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/irs-backdating-court-order-spotlights-culture-attorneys-say). If a DA filed a criminal indictment, and back dated the indictment to get around a statute of limitations problem, would that not destroy the public's confidence in the system? As I learned in auditing class, the fish usually starts rotting at the head. The fact that these IRS employees felt it was OK to back date court documents should raise questions as to the integrity at the top. If there was a culture in the organization that condoned and penalized this type of behavior it most likely wouldn't happen. And it does impact our clients and society at large. Maybe not directly, but it does erode any confidence that tax payers have that they would be treated fairly if they ever had an issue with IRS. And it makes it easier for them to justify padding a deduction or not reporting the income from that side job if they feel, "if the IRS isn't playing by the rules, so why should I."

"To take one difficult area of tax law and apply that to the whole agency is an exaggeration" To me, this has nothing to do with the IRS or any other agency. It is another sign of the moral decay of our society - period. "Do the right thing" used to not be noticeable, because it was a matter of constant action, the expected action if you will. Now when someone "does the right thing" it is unique enough it becomes the closing bit on the evening news. Worse yet, the "right thing" often gets you chastised privately and publicly, so less and less will do the right thing when it can be seen, such as some/many? in politics, or even being a volunteer in a local service group (what, you are a member of X? So is a real red/blue person, so you musty be red/blue too). For those who have a desire to help, one place which usually does not bite politically is foster care / CASA. The bite is you do have to become a little more self aware about town as you may run into a "parent" who believes you helped take their child from them, but in most cases, those folks don't bother seeking revenge.

I apologize. I posted without reading all of the details. Thanks to Catherine and Patrick .

I had a class mate who ended up working for Grant Thornton. She was assigned to the team auditing the Social Security Administration and she told me the materiality threshold was in the ten's of millions (can't remember the exact amount). Leaves a lot of room for errors and fraud.

I had a client sell a rental home this past year. Normally not a problem. He was a year from going on Medicare and was getting a big advance credit on the health insurance exchange. With the gain, his income went way up and he had to pay back the credit. Ouch.