Internal Revenue Service

CLARIFICATIONAn article in yesterday's Howard County edition of The Sun may have suggested that Dominic LaPonzina, an Internal Revenue Service spokesman, talked about federal tax liens filed against County Councilman Thomas W. Redmond Sr. Mr. LaPonzina discussed only rules regarding tax liens in general.

Loyal readers of this page are likely aware that we have not been great supporters of the tea party movement. Too often, we have found those anti-tax crusaders who call themselves tea party patriots are simply rebranded John Birch Society members of an earlier time with all the extremist anti-civil rights, anti-immigration, and anti-United Nations rhetoric that comes with it. But the latest disclosure - gleaned from a draft inspector general's report...

An article in yesterday's editions contained incorrect information about how former Internal Revenue Service clerk Janeen McClean left her job last year. McClean, who pleaded guilty to a federal charge of disclosing confidential information, resigned from the IRS, according to IRS officials.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 12/04/97

The Internal Revenue Service will open its doors Saturday in Baltimore and four other Maryland locations to help individuals and small businesses with return preparation or other tax issues, such as working out a payment plan. The Taxpayer Assistance Centers will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The sites are 31 Hopkins Plaza in Baltimore, 190 Admiral Cochran Drive in Annapolis, 1260 Maryland Ave. in Hagerstown, 11510 Georgia Ave. in Wheaton and 8401 Corporate Drive in Landover.

The Internal Revenue Service will open its doors Saturday in Baltimore and four other Maryland locations to help individuals and small businesses with return preparation or other tax issues, such as working out a payment plan. The Taxpayer Assistance Centers will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The sites are 31 Hopkins Plaza in Baltimore, 190 Admiral Cochran Drive in Annapolis, 1260 Maryland Ave. in Hagerstown, 11510 Georgia Ave. in Wheaton and 8401 Corporate Drive in Landover.

AN ELECTION-YEAR reform of the Internal Revenue Service, which passed the House and Senate nearly unanimously and will be signed into law by President Clinton, is welcome news for American taxpayers. It is also oversold.Everyone will still have to file income tax returns, still have to pay taxes, still face penalties -- and possible criminal charges -- for evading them. Despite efforts to simplify them, the forms will remain complex. And Congress will still tinker with the tax code, making it more complicated every year.

The Internal Revenue Service is offering extended walk-in service at the Fallon Federal Building in Hopkins Plaza, Baltimore and Hanover streets, on Saturdays in March and April.The schedule includes the remaining three Saturdays of this month, April 4 and April 11. The service will be available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.On March 28, April 4 and April 11, IRS employees will assist low-income and elderly taxpayers -- as well as those eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit -- with tax returns.

Samuel F. du Pont, descendant of the powerful industrialist and a former Cecil County sheriff, admitted yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore that he failed to pay taxes on nearly $1 million he received from family trusts in the late 1990s. Du Pont, 72, of Cecilton pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion. Federal prosecutors said in court papers that du Pont failed to file tax returns from 1996 through 1999, during which he earned $982,809 as the sole beneficiary of three trusts.

Herma J. Hightower has barely begun to unpack the boxes that transported her office paraphernalia from Iowa to Baltimore, where she now occupies the director's suite for one of the Internal Revenue Service's largest districts. But she has retrieved a few favorite items that made the trip.There's a giant "good luck" card adorned with the colorful palm prints of children from the day care center Ms. Hightower established in her previous IRS position. And then there's the dinosaur poster with the poignant caption, "History is full of giants who couldn't adapt."

In an article on a survey of Internal Revenue Service officials -- a copy of which was released last Thursday by the National Coalition of IRS Whistleblowers, a group founded by the Church of Scientology -- The Sun reported erroneously that 21 percent of the officials replied "no" when asked if they had been "completely honest" in their responses to questions in the survey.In fact, less than 13 percent of the officials replied "no." Thatfigure is less than average for such a question on such surveys, according to the Joseph & Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics, which conducted the study.

Workers at the city's main post office on Fayette Street were prepping Thursday morning for the annual late-night Tax Day rush, albeit a more casual version than that of a decade ago. On April 15 back then, the hours leading up to midnight took on a carnival-like feel. "Years ago, when there was only mailing, we'd have IRS people in the lobby helping people fill out forms," said William Ridenour, postmaster of Baltimore. "We'd have people coming in with a box of receipts doing their tax forms at 11 at night.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Few Americans relish the annual chore of preparing their tax returns. Two out of three taxpayers, including me, simply hand the job to a pro. But that still leaves more than 50 million do-it-yourself die-hards. If you count yourself among them, you face a growing set of taxing decisions before you even pick up an IRS instruction booklet: Should you use software or stick to pencil and calculator? If you turn to software, should you pop a disk into your PC or complete it online?

Investigations abuse the power of the IRS Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s instigation of an Internal Revenue Service investigation of the NAACP when he was a member of Congress didn't simply do damage to nonprofit advocacy groups such as the NAACP that are engaged in constitutionally protected free speech ("Ehrlich defends 2001 IRS inquiry," May 20). Mr. Ehrlich and other House and Senate Republicans, who hid behind constituents' requests to explain their calls for an investigation of the NAACP, also did damage to the Internal Revenue Service itself.

It seems there are three certainties in life for John Baptist Kotmair Jr. - death, taxes and court. Kotmair, who served two years in federal prison in the 1980s for income-tax evasion, was accused yesterday by the Justice Department of selling tax-fraud schemes. Federal prosecutors in Baltimore are seeking an injunction against 70-year-old Kotmair and his Westminster-based Save-A-Patriot Fellowship, as well as a court order directing the group to turn over customers' names, addresses, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers.

Many of us keep far more financial records in our home than is necessary. Others don't keep what they should, or if they do, they can't find a document when they need it. To keep your home from becoming a firetrap or a document trap, be selective about what you keep. There are just two rules: No. 1: "It's not so important as to what system a person uses when organizing documents of this nature," says Barry Izsak, president of the National Association of Professional Organizers, a group of consultants who help consumers with organization needs.

The Chimes, a Baltimore nonprofit group strongly criticized by charity experts for nondisclosure of business deals with board members and millions in executive pay, said yesterday that it is asking the Internal Revenue Service to examine the organization's records and address points raised by recent articles in The Sun. Also yesterday, the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations said the articles prompted it to question Chimes' compliance with...

AWESOME unanimity in the Senate and near-unanimity in the House of Representatives make congressional reform of the Internal Revenue Service a steamroller that cannot be stopped.The administration has reservations about details, which perhaps can be ironed out in a House-Senate conference committee before enactment. But President Clinton is joining, not opposing, this juggernaut, lest it flatten him.There is no secret to how this rare bipartisanship under Republican leadership was accomplished.

Louis Kaplan, a retired Internal Revenue Service supervisor and decorated World War II veteran, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at the North Oaks Retirement Community, where he resided for the past three years. The former Northwest Baltimore resident was 94. Born in Clearfield, Pa., and raised in East Baltimore, he was a 1926 City College graduate. He studied accounting at the Johns Hopkins University and passed the Maryland Certified Public Accounting exam in 1936. In 1940, he joined the Internal Revenue Service, but his work was interrupted by military service from 1942 to 1945.

Louis Kaplan, a retired Internal Revenue Service supervisor and decorated World War II veteran, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at the North Oaks Retirement Community, where he resided for the past three years. The former Northwest Baltimore resident was 94. Born in Clearfield, Pa., and raised in East Baltimore, he was a 1926 City College graduate. He studied accounting at the Johns Hopkins University and passed the Maryland Certified Public Accounting exam in 1936. In 1940, he joined the Internal Revenue Service, but his work was interrupted by military service from 1942 to 1945.

As congressional committees and federal investigators examine whether Enron abused off-shore tax shelters to avoid taxes and keep debt off its balance sheet, some experts argue the company was doing just the opposite. The Houston-based energy company, they say, was using financial sleight of hand to make debt look like income, helping push the company to No. 7 on the Fortune 500 and keeping share values high. What shareholders didn't know was that the company was telling a different story to the Internal Revenue Service.