On Tue, 11 Jul 2006, Anne & Lynn Wheeler wrote:
| ...independent operation/sources/entities have been used
for a variety of
| different purposes. however, my claim has been then
auditing has been used
to
| look for inconsistencies. this has worked better in
situations where there
was
| independent physical books from independent sources (even
in the same
| corporation).
|
| As IT technology has evolved ... my assertion is a
complete set of
| (consistent) corporate books can be generated from a
single IT
| source/operation. The IRS example is having multiple
independent sources
of
| the same information (so that you can have independent
sources to check
for
| inconsistencies)....
Another, very simple, example of the way that the
assumptions of
auditing are increasingly at odds with reality can be seen
in receipts.
Whenever I apply for a reimbursement of business expenses, I
have to
provide original receipts. Well ... just what *is* an
"original
receipt" for an Amazon purchase? Sure, I can print
the page Amazon
gives me. Then again, I can easily modify it to say
anything I like.
Hotel receipts are all computer-printed these days. Yes,
some of them
still use pre-printed forms, but as the cost of color laser
printers
continues to drop, eventually it will make no sense to order
and stock
that stuff. Restaurant receipts are printed on little slips
of paper by
one of a small number of brands of printer with some easily
set custom-
ization, readily available at low cost to anyone who cares
to buy one.
Back in the days when receipts were often hand-written or
typed on
good-quality letterhead forms, original receipts actually
proved
something. Yes, they could be faked, but doing so was
difficult and
hardly worth the effort. That's simply not true any more.
Interestingly, the auditors at my employer - and at many
others, I'm
sure - have recognized this, and now accept fax images of
all receipts.
However, the IRS still insists on "originals" in
case of an audit.
Keeping all those little pieces of paper around until the
IRS loses
interest (I've heard different ideas about how long is
"safe" - either 3
or 7 years) is now *my* problem. (If the IRS audits my
employer, and
comes to me for receipts I don't have, the "business
expense reimburse-
ments" covered by those missing receipts suddenly get
reclassified as
"ordinary income", on which *I*, not my
employer, now owe taxes - and
their good friends interest and penalties.)
-- Jerry
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