IRS Hearings

You take a person as you find him. I prepared my 1996 tax return myself. Two months after filing, I received a letter from the IRS pointing out that I had included in our income a large item that was nontaxable. Included was a refund check in a sum close to four figures.

I am not related to nor do I know anybody in the IRS. I write this simply because it happened.

ELMER FERBER

Ventura

Once again Congress has garnered lots of vote-gathering headlines and produced no permanent solution. The effective way to control the vicious predatory actions of the IRS is to establish an ombudsman agency to which taxpayers can appeal and which reports to Congress and the media.

The suspicion is that Congress really doesn’t want to rein in the IRS. The IRS brings in the billions that Congress lavishes on vote-getting expenditures.

DON SHAW

Los Angeles