The Nation - News from Nov. 27, 1985

At some tax-processing centers, taxpayer letters were destroyed, refund checks were mutilated, some people put in 80-hour weeks and tax forms were left in restrooms and on loading docks, the General Accounting Office reported. In reports being distributed on Capitol Hill this week, the GAO, an investigating arm of Congress, pointed to inadequate staffing and a changeover to a new computer system as primary reasons for what Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.) said was “the worst tax-filing season in history.” More than seven months after the April 15 federal income tax filing deadline, the Internal Revenue Service said 1.9 million tax returns remain unprocessed.