Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

A Trek deduction

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 1
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous template Next
  • #1

    A Trek deduction

    Worse than 'Spocks Brain'... it's the bland soulless bureaucrats!
    Think this parody was on us?

    This week a Star Trek controversy has been brewing û and it has nothing to do with Alice EveÆs undies. This Star Trek scandal involves the IRS û yes the people that collect your taxes û spending $60,000 on a Star Trek parody video.
    Watch: IRS $60K Star Trek Video Earns Rebuke From Congress – Worst.Parody.Ever
    http://trekmovie.com/2013/03/23/watch-irs-star-trek-video-earns-rebuke-from-congress-worst-parody-ever/
    This week a Star Trek controversy has been brewing – and it has nothing to do with Alice Eve’s undies. This scandal Star Trek scandal involves the IRS – yes the people that collect your taxes – spending $60,000 on a Star Trek parody video. Congress demanded to see the video and today the IRS released it. Watch the video below   $60,000 Star Trek Parody Gets IRS In Hot Water On Wednesday Congressman Charles Boustany (Chairman of the Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee) sent a letter to the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service to "inquire about videos depicting television or movie parodies" produced by the IRS production studio. The goal was to "determine whether and to what extend taxpayer resources were devoted to activities unrelated" to the IRS "core functions." Of particular interest was a Star Trek parody video which the IRS had admitted cost $60,000 to produce. And so late on Friday the IRS complied with the request and released the six-minute long parody video, which was created for a 2010 training and leadership conference. The agency also said (via AP) it was a mistake to make the video because it "does not appear to have any training value." After watching the video where the "Starship Enterprise Y" visits "Planet Notax," you may not agree that was the only mistake they made. Here it is. Even though the IRS admitted it was a mistake, the agency tells AP the "Star Trek" video "was a well-intentioned, light-hearted introduction to an important conference during a difficult period for the IRS." However Boustany isn’t impressed, saying "There is nothing more infuriating to a taxpayer than to find out the government is using their hard-earned dollars in a way that is frivolous. The IRS admitted as much when it disclosed that it no longer produces such videos." The controversey still hasn’t ended. There is another video with a "Gilligan’s Island" theme which the IRS has not released. In this case the agency is saying it was a "a legitimate training video" with "an island theme provided filing season training for 1,900 employees in our Taxpayer Assistance Centers in 400 locations." According to the IRS "using a video saved the agency $1.5 million each year compared to the costs of training the employees in person."



    http://youtu.be/VxU6n4pAnrU
    Tags: None
  • #2
    My god... my brain is struggling to process this.
    Captain John Sheridan: I really *hate* it when you do that.

    Kosh: Good!

    Comment

    • #3
      So nice to hear that the not-yet-released Gilligan's Island video did have legitimate training uses. </sarcasm>

      Jan
      "As empathy spreads, civilization spreads. As empathy contracts, civilization contracts...as we're seeing now.

      Comment

      • #4
        I earned $14k net more in 2012 than I did in 2011. Thanks to that and the new tax laws, I went from receiving a $2k refund last year to owing $2500 this year. Glad to see itÆs going to good use.

        On the plus side, I think that means IÆm rich now. If only I could get my bank account & bill collectors to realize that, IÆd be in good shape.
        "You don't like it here, do you? You'd rather you were back in your quarters, asleep, dreaming dreams of glory."

        Comment

        • #5
          IRS releases 'Gilligan's Island' employee training tape

          IRS releases 'Gilligan's Island' employee training tape
          http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/dont_mess_with_taxes/2013/03/irs-releases-gilligans-island-training-tape.html
          The other shoe has dropped on the Internal Revenue Service videos under fire by a House Ways and Means Committee member. Or rather the beach flip-flop has dropped, since the second video in question is a training tape based on Gilligan's Island. Click image to go to YouTube video. In "FA Quality Island," the tax castaways discuss field assistance, or FA, the IRS term for face-to-face help provided taxpayers. You can read the IRS manual on FA if the 16-minute training skit is not enough for you. The set for FA Island isn't elaborate, but in the spririt of the...



          and this IRS video even has it's own laugh track.

          Have you heard the old rumor that the castaways represent the 7 deadly sins? Seems more likely in this production.

          http://youtu.be/CBq8yzLObGg

          Comment

          • #6
            I don't think it's a rumor, Gilligan is lazy, Skipper is wrath, Professor is pride, Ginger is lust, Mr. Howell is greed, Mary Ann is vanity. Mrs. Howell as gluttony is a bit of a strech, but 6 out of 7 ain't bad.

            Plus there's this

            Can you tell I thought about that too much? I notice I have a few different than my link, I like my version better.


            Unfortunately, when money is budgeted to a department or agency for a specific reason, it has to be used. Unlike a private industry/business which might say, 'good job saving some money', a government says 'you didn't need those extra funds so we're cutting your budget'. This mentality is prevelant, even if someone can site a contradictory example, it's how budgeting is normally done. I know that our parking lot has been repaved 3 times in the 12 years I've been here and they keep redoing the landscaping. There's lots of places that money is "wasted" I think the landscaping is wasted money, but it's debateable and each item is debated at each turn, and it's usually based on a compromise. I sometimes wonder if they don't think it's a good thing just because it keeps the people they've hired employed. (Most of your landscapers are have some kind of disability and are contracted through a service that helps them find work.)
            I've trained people, and it's important to keep them engaged and awake. I haven't been able to watch either video, but I think there's some geekery afoot regarding the Star Trek video, I've heard more complaints about the wrong costumes more than anything else. I don't know how much the Gilligan video costs, but I saw that using the video instead of sending a trainer could save up to $1.5 million dollars. If the Star Trek one has no training value, it's very likely a waste. It does make you wonder why these things happen. Who greenlights these things?
            Could they be as annoyed as every other federal employee that hasn't got a raise in 3 years because the administration blew through $5 trillion dollars it didn't have from 2008 to 2010? It's hard to say.
            Last edited by Marsden; 03-26-2013, 07:57 AM.
            "And what kind of head of Security would I be if I let people like me know things that I'm not supposed to know? I mean, I know what I know because I have to know it. And if I don't have to know it, I don't tell me, and I don't let anyone else tell me either. " And I can give you reasonable assurances that the head of Security will not report you for doing so."
            "Because you won't tell yourself about it?"
            "I try never to get involved in my own life, too much trouble."

            Comment

            • #7
              Unfortunately, when money is budgeted to a department or agency for a specific reason, it has to be used.
              This is the biggest problem with America today. Period.

              Could they be as annoyed as every other federal employee that hasn't got a raise in 3 years because the administration blew through $5 trillion dollars it didn't have from 2008 to 2010? It's hard to say.
              Let'em get mad. Federal workers no more "deserve" a raise in this awful climate than do the employees of businesses that have lost money over the past five years. In fact, they deserve it less.

              Who greenlights these things?
              The same group who gives the go orders to raid people's homes with military hardware and three-letter-acronym vests.
              Recently, there was a reckoning. It occurred on November 4, 2014 across the United States. Voters, recognizing the failures of the current leadership and fearing their unchecked abuses of power, elected another party as the new majority. This is a first step toward preventing more damage and undoing some of the damage already done. Hopefully, this is as much as will be required.

              Comment

              • #8
                Originally posted by Dr Maturin View Post
                Let'em get mad. Federal workers no more "deserve" a raise in this awful climate than do the employees of businesses that have lost money over the past five years. In fact, they deserve it less.
                Indeed, as you do not deserve your tax return in this awful climate.
                "And what kind of head of Security would I be if I let people like me know things that I'm not supposed to know? I mean, I know what I know because I have to know it. And if I don't have to know it, I don't tell me, and I don't let anyone else tell me either. " And I can give you reasonable assurances that the head of Security will not report you for doing so."
                "Because you won't tell yourself about it?"
                "I try never to get involved in my own life, too much trouble."

                Comment

                • #9
                  Apparently they agreed with your contention, as my refund was held up for a month due to bureaucrats having their heads up their asses as to how certain types of deductions were being handled.
                  Recently, there was a reckoning. It occurred on November 4, 2014 across the United States. Voters, recognizing the failures of the current leadership and fearing their unchecked abuses of power, elected another party as the new majority. This is a first step toward preventing more damage and undoing some of the damage already done. Hopefully, this is as much as will be required.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    it's not just america, this is how budgets are handled here as well. I've worked for the Irish government (possibly past tense now, I've been out long term sick since November) for almost 22 years, I spent 4 years dealing with departmental budgets directly and a further 5 indirectly and it's how the finance dept. works, they allocate you budget, then after it's allocated you have to get approval to actually spend it, if you don't spend it all then it's cut the following year, this has been going on for at least the two decades Iv'e worked in various departments and fate only knows how long before that.

                    It's why you see a lot of shiny new tech products and big sales pitches at the bggeining of quarter one and towards the end of quarter three, this is becuase at the start of the year they are all "new budget, yay, spendapalooza" and towards the end of quarter three (as it's not charged until delivery is complete) it's "oh frak, we've got a tonne of money left, quick, spend spend spend".

                    It's a bizzare system which makes *no* encouragement to actually save money, My entire adult life has been spent working for the government and *I* don't understand it either...
                    Alan
                    "There are no good wars. War is always the worst possible way to resolve differences. It degenerates and corrupts both sides to ever more sordid levels of existence, in their need to gain an advantage over the enemy. Those actively involved in combat are almost always damaged goods for the rest of their lives. If their bodies don't bear scars, their minds do, ofttimes both. Many have said it before, but it can't be said to enough, war is hell. "

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Dr Maturin View Post
                      This is the biggest problem with America today. Period.
                      Actually, I think the biggest problem in America is Congress makes the rules for Congress. There is no oversights and the checks and balances have been slowly push aside into irrelevance. Instead of a king we have 535 puny satraps that argue about everything except what is good for themselves, on that they all agree, but never in public. In public they keep us at our proverbial throats by branding us with "parties" and "issues". I find the whole thing repugnant.

                      This is why I so rarely discuss issues, they all seem like a fool's errand no matter how well intentioned. Plus, the tragedy of it all makes me bitchy.

                      The gun thing. All these extra laws to make something that's already illegal more illegal? For example, Lanza (sp?) broke 47 laws commiting the Sandy Hook Massacre, would a 48th law stopped him? I'm not in favor of everyone armed everywhere at all times, either. I have no solution, but I'm not going to try to foist my opinion on everyone else with some half-assed stats that prove I'm supposedly right.

                      Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and they stink.

                      I apologize if I've offended anyone with my rude language, but I can not think of a nicer way to express my thoughts.
                      "And what kind of head of Security would I be if I let people like me know things that I'm not supposed to know? I mean, I know what I know because I have to know it. And if I don't have to know it, I don't tell me, and I don't let anyone else tell me either. " And I can give you reasonable assurances that the head of Security will not report you for doing so."
                      "Because you won't tell yourself about it?"
                      "I try never to get involved in my own life, too much trouble."

                      Comment

                      Previous template Next
                      Working...
                      X