Whose To Blame

<a href="http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-04-04T172340Z_01_N04403059_RTRUKOC_0_US-CONGRESS-TAXRETURNS.xml&archived=False">Tax preparers make many mistakes: study</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>Professional tax preparers make significant errors on returns and often charge the taxpayer more than the client had been told to expect, according to a government study released on Tuesday.<br />n<br />nThe study by the Government Accountability Office was a very limited one, involving 19 outlets of commercial chain tax preparers in one major metropolitan area. But lawmakers said it was a red flag about the tax return industry.<br />n<br />nSenate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said "bad practices" appear to be "pervasive and systemic in the industry."<br />n<br />nGAO investigators presented the tax preparers with fictional, but plausible and not overly elaborate, tax scenarios. Most of the returns ended up wrong — sometimes inflating the refund for the taxpayer by as much as $2,000 and sometimes costing the taxpayer up to $1,500 in overpayment.</blockquote><br />n<br />nMy question is "who's to blame for these problems in the tax industry?" The tax preparers for not do a good enough job preparing taxes or Congress for making the tax law so complicated that nobody can follow it and you are almost guaranteed to make a mistake? I think they should both, Congress and tax prepares, shoulder the blame for these problems in their "industry." Yes, taxes are Congresses industry and they need to suck it up and take their share of the blame.<br />n<br />n<b>Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. George Bernard Shaw</b>