TAXES ON TRIVIAL ITEMS? 1

In a 14 July post, TaxGirl reports small purchases for which a Tax Return has to be filed for each purchase.

June
Total purchases: $3.95
Total tax owed for June: $ .28

May
Total purchases: $16.83
Total tax owed for May $1.18

April
Total purchases: $ .99
Total tax owed for April $ .07

March
No purchases
Total tax owed for March 0

February
Total purchases $8.84
Total tax owed for February $.62

January
Total purchases $4.11
Total tax owed for January: $.29

She questions the reasonableness of the wasted time and administrative burden:

. . . I would have to file six different returns to date – and paid the princely sum of a total of $2.44 (with six different checks).

How is that remotely efficient – on my end or on the end of Revenue?

If I had filed, I would have written six checks. And I would have paid $2.52 for postage – more than the total tax owed – to file those returns.

Also, in addition to my own time to prepare returns, as a taxpayer I would have paid to have a Revenue employee process six different returns – for a gross total of $2.44. Not even mathematically possible to break even under those circumstances.

The transactions are about a Use Tax.

The IRS –applying the concept of de minimis non curat lex (the law is not interested in trivial matters)– allows exemptions for De Minimis Fringe Benefits: a de minimis benefit is one for which, considering its value and the frequency with which it is provided, is so small as to make accounting for it unreasonable or impractical. De minimis benefits are excluded under Internal Revenue Code section 132(a)(4) and include items which are not specifically excluded under other sections of the Code.

To save the taxpayer and the IRS from expending unnecessary time and resources, shouldn’t the concept of De Minimis be applied to the Use Tax?

info from http://www.irs.gov/govt/fslg/article/0,,id=184791,00.html
image from Microsoft Clipart