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CONTACT
Cook & Co.
Bara Business Center
124 South Main Street
Arab, Alabama 35016-1351
- Main Tel: 256-586-4111
- Nationwide: 800-551-6253 or 6254
- Birmingham (Direct): 322-7452
- Huntsville (Direct): 534-6922
- Fax: 256-586-4138
- Email: info at bara dot net
- Directions:
Map
- Office Directory
- We accept VISA, MasterCard, Discover and American Express
OFFICE HOURS
Tax Season (Feb 1 - Apr 15)
Mon - Fri
9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Saturdays 9:00 a.m.
- 4:00 p.m.
After Tax-Season (Apr 16 - Jan 31)
Mon - Thu 9:00 a.m.
- 5:00 p.m.
Closed on Fri and Sat
Scheduling an
Appointment:
With the majority of our clientele being in the Huntsville and
Birmingham metropolitan areas, we maintain direct phone lines from
those areas. In Huntsville call 534-6922. In Birmingham call
322-7452. Our local Arab telephone numbers are (Area Code 256)
586-4111, 586-4112, 586-4113 and 586-4114 (if using a cell phone,
please use one of these numbers). If you need to call toll-free,
dial 1-800-551-6253 or 1-800-551-6254.
Available appointment times on the hour are: Mornings
9, 10 or 11, Afternoons 1, 2 or 3 and Evenings 6, 7 or
8 (no evening appointments on Saturdays).
HELPFUL INFO
Our sitelinks are divided into four main categories:
The Accounting Department, where you
will find information related to; accounting, bookkeeping and
payroll.
Our Tax Department has answers to many
questions you may have regarding federal, state and local taxes,
including; income tax, sales tax, privilege tax and use tax.
In the Financial Department you will
find articles and information on; managing your finances, banking,
investing, different types of investments, cash and debt management.
The Technology Department contains
helpful information on; computers, software, information systems,
automated processes, the internet and email.
Many hours of work have gone into our effort of providing the
information contained in this website, not only to our many clients,
but the public in general. As of August 2009 we have more than 1,000
pages. To quickly find the answers to your accounting, tax,
financial or technology related questions, please use our search
box, which is in the upper left corner of every page.
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Fiscal Year 2007 IRS Enforcement Results
Individuals
Audit rates increased in 2007, both for overall individual rates and for
higher-income taxpayers.
Audits of individuals with incomes of $1 million or more increased from
17,015 during fiscal year 2006 to 31,382 during fiscal year 2007, an
increase of 84 percent. One out of 11 individuals with incomes of $1 million
or more faced an audit in 2007.
Overall, the total individual returns audited increased by 7 percent to
1,384,563 in 2007 from 1,293,681 in 2006. That’s the highest number since
1998.
Audits of individuals with incomes over $200,000 reached 113,105 returns, up
29.2 percent from the prior year total of 87,885.
The IRS increased audits of individual returns with income of $100,000 or
more, auditing 293,188 of these returns in 2007, up 13.7 percent from last
year’s total of 257,851.
The IRS filed 3.8 million levies and almost 700,000 liens during 2007, an
increase from the previous year and a substantial increase from five years
earlier.
Businesses
In the business arena, the IRS continued efforts to review more returns of
flow-through entities – partnerships and S Corporations. Our business
numbers reflect that we have placed more emphasis in the growing area of
these flow-through returns. While large corporate audits are down slightly,
we have increased our focus on mid-market corporations – those with assets
between $10 million and $50 million dollars. The IRS enforcement budget in
2007 was similar to the budget in 2006, and in times of flat budgets, the
agency cannot increase activity across the board but must address the areas
where there is growth and potential risk.
- Audits of S Corporations increased to 17,681 during 2007, up 26 percent from
the prior year’s total of 13,984.
- Audits of partnerships increased to 12,195 during 2007, up almost 25 percent
from the prior year’s total of 9,777.
- Audits of mid-market corporations increased to 4,473, up 6 percent from last
year’s total of 4,218.
- Audits of businesses in general rose to 59,516, an increase of almost 14
percent from the prior year’s total of 52,223.
- Although the audits of large corporations dipped slightly in 2007 to 9,644
audits, the number of audits is up 14 percent from the fiscal year 2002
level.
The Internal Revenue Service is hiring personnel and stepping up audit and
collection activity. We predict this trend will continue in the near term.
The chart illustration below was reproduced from their web site at
www.irs.gov.
The Question: So, when the President and Congress cut taxes, how does
the amount of money the IRS collects remain the same or go up?
The Answer: Through stepped-up audit and collection activity.
From 1996 to 2005, the above charts illustrate the Internal Revenue
Service trend in number of audits performed during these years. There is an
old saying about "the pendulum" always swings back the other way. There is
another saying about "for every action there is an opposite but equal
reaction". It seems that along with tax-cuts, we always see stepped-up audit
and collection activity. |
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