The 2005 filing season has been a smooth one, an American Institute of CPAs committee chair told members of Congress a day before today's filing deadline.
"The AICPA is happy to report that the 2005 filing season is progressing largely without any significant problems," Tom Purcell, AICPA Tax Executive Committee chair, told members of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight during a public hearing on Thursday. "American taxpayers and practitioners are generally pleased with the Internal Revenue Service's performance."
However, Purcell noted that last year, brokerage firms and mutual funds had "major difficulties" determining which dividends constituted "qualified dividends" for purposes of the new 15 percent rate, a situation that he said resulted in large numbers of erroneous Forms 1099-DIV being sent to taxpayers.
While Purcell said that the complaints from practitioners and taxpayers are "substantially less than what occurred in 2004," he added that the AICPA received a number of reports from CPAs that some taxpayers still haven't received their Forms 1099-DIV, or that they are receiving a number of corrected Forms 1099-DIV.
In his testimony, Purcell also urged Congress to support full funding of the IRS's fiscal year 2006 budget, which includes a request for a $500 million increase in funding, bringing the allocation to $10.7 billion.
