[Publib] IRS Tax Forms - History

[James Casey]

Back in 1997-98, my concern was that some form of compensation be
provide for Libraries distributing tax forms.  The ALA Washington Office
Director (Henderson) asked me to prepare a model for calculating the
actual cost to Libraries of distributing Tax Forms for the IRS.  This,
it was reasoned, would give them some way of determining what bare "cost
recovery" would represent for Libraries.  The task force ALA formed to
deal with the IRS on our behalf merely accepted the flat refusal of the
IRS to provide any compensation.  ---  I was not on the task force, but
made clear to Ms. Henderson and my colleagues that acceptance of that
flat refusal to compensate Libraries rendered the rest of the
discussions absolutely meaningless.   My own advice was to have ALA
representatives get up and leave the room with the threat of
orchestrating a nationwide call for public libraries to refuse to
distribute tax forms.  A national boycott by most public libraries might
have forced the hand of the IRS and convinced them that some kind of
grant or stipend or other in-kind tangible recognition of the
contribution of Libraries was essential.  After all, the IRS was saving
a great deal in salaries and publicly operated facility costs because of
the cooperation of libraries.  

To a certain extent, those of us in leadership positions in libraries
and in ALA have to continually emphasize the dollar value of what our
Libraries do and resist the temptation to "be helpful" to our colleagues
in other institutions of government without discussion of cost --- and
what devoting expensive staff time towards helping distribute tax forms,
providing license renewal services, teaching school classes, and selling
stamps, tollway transponders, hunting licenses, etc. might take away
from our ability to meet our primary service objectives.  --- Maybe we
(those of us in administration) have to get a little bit "greedy" and
nasty when it comes to fighting for our budgets. 

James B. Casey --- My own views.

Director of Oak Lawn Public Library

ALA Council Member - Candidate for re-election.

 

________________________________

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Michael Golrick
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 9:14 AM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] IRS Tax Forms - History

 

Hi-

 

Well, having moved in the last several months and now had the dubious
pleasure of doing a tax return in a new state (and the Wisconsin Part
Year Resident form is longer than the 1040, and requires that you attach
the 1040, and the Connecticut form required that I attach the Wisconsin
form, and I thought I was in an infinite loop for a bit), I wanted to
reflect on some history.

 

There have been efforts by ALA and by PLA to try to work with the IRS.
Back in (mumble, mumble) I served on what I think was a PLA committee
for several years. The frustration we had was that when the IRS actually
sent someone, they were not at a high enough level to actually do
anything. They would listen to our complaints/issues, and then go back a
report up, and we would never hear anything. Well, except when all of a
sudden racks were delivered, or the reproducible forms appeared, and
then were split into two notebooks with one of the arriving really
early. So, we did get some things done, but it was incredibly
frustrating. Eventually, and this may have been when PLA re-structured
its committees (Christine Hage, do you remember or know?), the committee
ceased.

 

Here is the opportunity. There are some of us on this list who are on
ALA Council, and others who are running (for election or re-election),
if there is enough interest, I would work on a resolution to ask ALA to
take action. But first, I need a sense of what that action would be.

 

ALA Council resolutions have a funny way of sometimes being effective.
Jim Casey and I have had the experience of being concerned enough about
something to write a resolution (E-Rate), and learned a great deal about
the ALA processes and committees. We each have, as our penance for
writing that resolution in 1999, served on the Task Force which still
exists and works with the FCC and others on this topic.

 

I hope this offers some insight. Let me know if I can help.

 

 

 

Michael Golrick

Councilor-at-Large

http://michaelgolrick.blogspot.com <http://michaelgolrick.blogspot.com/>


 

L. E. Phillips Memorial Public Library

400 Eau Claire Street

Eau Claire WI 54701

715/839.5001

mailto:michaelg at eauclaire.lib.wi.us

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20070313/329a8690/attachment.htm