Friday, February 03, 2006

IRS Computers Can’t Handle Gates’ Taxes

Think you have trouble with your taxes? Well, I’m not going to feel sorry for the richest man in the world, but apparently his tax return is so complex that it requires a special computer, and because of that, if the info gets on the wrong computer, he erroneously gets notices of non-payment.

“Their normal computers can’t deal with the numbers,” he (Gates) said of the hapless taxmen. “So I am constantly getting these notices telling me I haven’t paid something, when really it is just on the wrong computer.”

According to an IRS spokeman, the agency’s main computers do not use the Windows operating system. IBM designed the original processing system for the IRS in the 1960s, which was largely tape and disk driven. Believe it or not the same system is used today, processing the bulk of America’s tax returns including, presumably at one time at least, that of Gates. Source:

Forbes
We Say: Perhaps it’s time for a hardware and software upgrade? I wonder if Ellison gets his own computer, and if not, if he’s jealous of that as well?

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