Many tax preparers don’t register in U.S.
Published 12:01 am Wednesday, July 13, 2011
About 100,000 paid tax preparers worked on 2011 returns but did not follow new rules requiring them to register with the Internal Revenue Service, the agency said Tuesday. The IRS launched an initiative last year to better police a largely unregulated industry used by most taxpayers. All paid tax pr
eparers must get an identification number from the IRS and provide it on returns they prepare. They will eventually have to pass a competency exam and get annual training, to help reduce fraud and errors. The agency said it is sending letters to 100,000 preparers who signed 2011 returns.
Most violent job: Nurse’s aide
The most violent job in Washington state isn’t being a police officer or a security guard. It’s working as a nurse’s aide. Seattle public radio station KUOW-FM made that finding as part of an investigative series on workplace safety airing this week. The station found that violence strikes health care workers in Washington at six times the state average, and frontline caregivers in emergency rooms and psychiatric wards get assaulted even more than that. The single most violent workplace in the state is at Western State Hospital, where criminal defendants are taken when they are found incompetent to stand trial. Workers at psychiatric hospitals are assaulted on the job more often than anybody else — 60 times more than the average worker in Washington state.
Netflix content prices about to rise sharply
Netflix Inc. has announced it is changing its subscription plan in a way that sharply increases the monthly rate for those wanting both DVD rentals by mail and the company’s streaming content. Netflix charges $9.99 per month for unlimited DVD rentals by mail, with one DVD rented at a time, plus unlimited streaming. Customers access streaming content online, through gaming consoles such as Sony’s PlayStation or Nintendo’s Wii, or via mobile devices. The new plan, which takes effect for current subscribers on Sept. 1, charges $7.99 per month for DVDs only and $7.99 for streaming.
Documents sought in Boeing labor dispute
The chairman of a congressional committee investigating the labor dispute over a South Carolina Boeing plant is prepared to use subpoenas to force labor officials to hand over documents, according to a letter sent Tuesday to the National Labor Relations Board’s chief attorney. In the letter to NLRB general counsel Lafe Solomon, Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa of California argues that Congress has the right to supersede attorney-client privilege in gathering information about the communications between the NLRB and Boeing. The NLRB sued Chicago-based Boeing Co. in April, saying the aeronautics giant illegally retaliated against unionized Washington state workers when it opened a 787 passenger jet manufacturing line in South Carolina, a right-to-work state.
From Herald news services
