Editorials
Tuesday, April 10, 2001
PAYING federal income taxes has become more voluntary. That may be a relief for taxpayers dreading the possibility of being audited, but it also increases the chance of tax frauds being perpetrated on the government. A balance would be preferable. Tax fraud rises due
to lax enforcementThe issue: Enforcement of federal
tax laws has declined since the early
1990s, allowing tax fraud to rise,
especially on the Internet.Audit rates nationally are down to one in 204 for taxpayers with incomes of more than $100,000, not adjusting for inflation, from one in nine in 1989, according to a study of Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
The I.R.S. filed civil lawsuits against just 641 taxpayers last year, compared with 2,519 in 1992.
The study shows that audit rates vary widely by region, ranging from the chance of one in 588 for taxpayers in Georgia to one in 69 in Los Angeles. In the region that encompasses Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii, the chance of being audited fell from one in 28 in 1992 to one in 294 last year.
Much of the decrease follows criticism that the I.R.S. received in 1997 and 1998 for having used strong-arm tactics. Some agents were accused of threatening audits to satisfy personal grudges, while whistleblowers in the agency had their careers ruined. The criticism led to reform legislation that has slowed the agency in auditing returns and collecting money from delinquent taxpayers.
"I am worried that the I.R.S. is a dog that doesn't have a bark," says Republican Sen. Charles E. Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
J.J. McNabb, a financial planner in Maryland, accuses the agency of paying more attention to people who chisel on deductions than to people who try to drop out entirely from the tax system. Mc-Nabb says she reported information about Internet tax frauds to the I.R.S. criminal investigation division but no action was taken. Indeed, the Syracuse study shows that criminal prosecutions by the I.R.S. have fallen by half since 1992.
Charles O. Rossotti, the I.R.S. commissioner, acknowledges tax fraud is "absolutely a big problem," especially among people with six-figure incomes who have stopped paying taxes or illegally using trusts to drastically reduce their tax bills.
Tax frauds are estimated to cost the government $300 billion a year, about one-third of what individuals paid last year. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., points out that the additional revenue in the next decade would be more than twice the size of President Bush's proposed tax cuts.
Baucus is right in saying that "support for our system based on voluntary reporting will deteriorate if not collapse" unless the I.R.S. moves swiftly against perpetrators of tax fraud.
Walk into many bookstores in town and you'll likely see segregation, books set apart by the race or ethnic background of their authors. This is neither democratic nor productive and should be reconsidered. Segregation survives
on bookstore shelvesThe issue: Marketing strategies in
bookstores segregate books by race.Particularly noticeable in bookstores here are sections for Asian-American writers. One display labeled "Asian Voices" held two new books by Asian-American women, Lois-Ann Yamanaka and Amy Tan, whose national reputations are as large as many other "mainstream" authors. But because they are Asian, their books weren't placed on the "New Releases" shelves where most fresh works are displayed.
Bookstores do this for marketing, said the manager of a store in a national chain. The thinking is that Asians want to read books by Asians, he explained. He also contended that such special displays call attention to writers often overlooked in the literary market.
The practice is also convenient for the customer, he said. Bookstores separate their wares by genre, so if certain readers favor romance novels or mysteries, science fiction or nonfiction, they can be steered to the departments where those books are found. Convenience is fine, but in what section would the bookstore place a historical mystery novel written by a Japanese-Polynesian-Caucasian man who is gay and a vegan?
Categorizing is the problem. Some Hawaii-based Asian writers say this segregation has two sides. While they aren't comfortable with the label, they believe their primary audiences are readers who share their races. Still, they say, they would prefer that their works be marketed on their merits in unsegregated sections.
In a recent conversation, one writer said her race played a role in her book being accepted by a large publishing house. How much, she couldn't determine. But she is aware that publishers, as part of marketing, consider an author's race in deciding on a book's acceptance.
To some extent, people choose books that reflect their own experiences. But their choices are more complex than that. Marketing books in this manner may confine rather than expand their selections, presenting differences rather than an opportunity to explore.
The bookstore with the "Asian Voices" had a section called "Women's Voices." Curiously the books by the Asian-American women weren't shelved there. Their race must have trumped their gender in the marketing strategy.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, President
John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.com The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (USPS 249460) is published daily by
Oahu Publications at 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.
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