On their taxpayer-funded website, the IRS recommends email as an “outstanding way to secure financial records.”
The advice was given as a preparation tip as part of National Hurricane Preparedness Week. “Many people receive bank statements and documents by e-mail,” the website explains. “This method is an outstanding way to secure financial records…”
After it was reported today that some of Lois Lerner’s long sought-after emails were supposedly destroyed after a “computer crash,” the conservative-targeting organization may want to think twice about their guidance.
Perhaps Americans can remember the “computer crash” excuse if they are ever the target of an audit.
Other helpful tips to secure financial records include:
- “copying files onto a CD or DVD. Also, many retail stores sell computer software packages that you can use for recordkeeping.”
- “photograph or videotape the contents in your house…”
- “Emergency plans should be reviewed annually. Personal and business situations change over time and so do preparedness needs. Individual taxpayers should make sure they are saving documents everybody should keep including such things as W-2s, home closing statements and insurance records.”
Clearly, the IRS does not practice what it preaches.
A bit of author speculation…
Whoever decided that to go with the laughable “computer crash” excuse perhaps figured that it would be better to look stupid than to be forced to implicate those who constantly pressured the IRS to target 501 (C)(4) applications of conservative groups in the wake of the much reviled Citizen’s United Supreme Court ruling.
