Word: refund
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...most drastic approach comes from Congressman John Porter, an Illinois Republican. He suggests that the Federal Government each year refund the Social Security surplus into Individual Social Security Retirement Accounts. Every worker could direct his account, like an IRA, into an array of nonspeculative investments, including Government bonds or certain mutual funds. The result, says Porter, would be a system of "vested, fully funded, worker-owned retirement accounts" -- though one in which the more successful investors would reap the larger benefits...
Filing a federal income-tax return used to be cheap but slow: 25 cents for the stamp and as much as eight weeks for the refund check. But now most U.S. taxpayers can take a high-tech shortcut. For anywhere from $25 to $75, filers can get their money in as little as two weeks by having their return sent electronically by one of 18,000 tax preparers and transmitters. After a four- year test run, the Internal Revenue Service for the first time is making its electronic filing system available in all 50 states this year...
...station called a "tingle table," numbered and coded by hand and sent to a keypunch operator who enters the data into IRS computers. Instead, the return goes immediately to the point at which it is checked by the computer for mathematical mistakes. After that, the refund is processed. Result: a check usually reaches taxpayers within three weeks -- or two if the filer authorizes a direct deposit into a bank account...
...simple typographical or spacing error will prompt the system to reject the form. "The return has to be almost perfect before it goes through," says Richard Butler, a Chicago accountant. Tax giant H&R Block, which has hawked its service with a high-profile advertising campaign called "Rapid Refund," says its program is going smoothly. But smaller preparing firms have found the system to be a computerized nightmare. "We're experiencing a communication problem with software, and it costs us time, energy and frustration," says Gery Lichtig, a Los Angeles accountant. The IRS contends that with sufficient practice time transmitters...