IRS, Mail, & USPS

Interesting the IRS the organization that can’t even seem to follow its own rules is now not even able to deliver notices to taxpayers. According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration “The IRS sends out approximately 200 million notices and letters each year to individual and business taxpayers and their representatives at a cost of $141 million. In 2009, approximately 19.3 million of those mailings were returned to the IRS at an estimated cost of $57.9 million”. In a sample of 331 notices 37% were deliveried to an address that didn't exisit, 35% were the wrong address , 24% were delievered to an address where the taxpayer wasn't home (certified or registered mail). 72% of e the sample noticed didn't even go to were they were suppose to go.

The United States Post Office is within the same city as the I.R.S. Yet what is even more interesting is that the USPS lost $3.79 billion in 2009. Let’s be reminded that the USPS does not pay taxes like ordinary businesses do! This story illustrates how comic if not tragic on how inefficient government programs are.

Link to report: http://www.treas.gov/tigta/auditreports/2010reports/201040055fr.pdf