uAdvocate: Additional IRS Funding Should Be “Extremely Helpful” In Actually Helping Taxpayersr

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  As we approach 2016, taxpayers might be wary of dealing with the Internal Revenue Service after last year’s identity theft problems. But according to the IRS’ national taxpayer advocate, the agency is going to be much better at dealing with taxpayers than it was last year.

  This, according to the national taxpayer advocate, Nina Olson, who has represented the voice of taxpayers to Congress since 2001 in her role heading up the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the IRS.

  She spoke with MarketWatch about her expectations for how the agency can improve in the future, especially with the $290 million in extra funding it received as part of the recently signed Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 (more info on that bill here). That bill included a total of $11.2 billion in fiscal funding for the IRS in 2016.

  Some of the IRS’ customer service issues could improve next year, Olson says, because of the additional boost the agency is getting. That money will go toward improving the IRS’ telephone service, cyber security and identity theft issues.

  “The additional funding will be extremely helpful over the next two years,” she told MarketWatch, adding that some taxpayers had their worst tax season to date in 2015.

  Though the extra money isn’t likely going to fix things in time for the filing season’s start in January, there should be fewer logistical headaches this year, Olson says. For one, she expects the money to help with things like “courtesy disconnects,” which is what happens when the IRS switchboard can’t handle the volume of calls and just hangs up on people.

  “Taxpayers should see an improvement on the phones sooner rather than later,” Olson said.

  More money, staff and training will go a long way in 2016, she adds, to help combat other issues like folks who overpay the Affordable Care Act penalty for not buying insurance if one can afford it. Olson said most of the 300,000 people last year who overpaid were exempt because of their income. There will sitll be a risk of that in 2016, she notes, despite her office’s work with software providers to give taxpayers clearer warnings.

  Fraud filters to prevent identity theft won’t be improved yet this year, however, as the IRS already tweaked them in response to this year’s issues. The money will go toward assigning more workers to identity theft cases, Olson says. Doing so “may be able to reduce cycle time and issue refunds to legitimate taxpayers more quickly.”

  IRS service should improve after some saw their ‘worst tax season,’ advocate says [MarketWatch]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uHere’s Where The Gifts You Return To The Store Will End Upr

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  Are you planning to return a gift this holiday season? The odds are good that you’re returning something: as many as 15% of all items bought online are returned to the retailer, and the number is even higher for items where fit and color can vary, like clothing. When an item has been opened or is otherwise unfit to go back on the store shelf, where does it end up? It goes to a growing industry of specialized liquidators.

  An executive at the logistics company Genco told the Wall Street Journal that this industry is called “re-commerce,” which doesn’t make us cringe as much as industry terms like that normally do. Often, items that you send back to a retailer go straight to a logistics warehouse, which in turn sells it to a liquidator. The retailer gets back maybe 10-20% of the value of these items, which end up in closeout stores, dollar stores, or with flea market vendors or in pawn shops.

  As more of our shopping shifts online, where return rates are higher, how can retailers get more back from these returns? The current system pretty much means accepting a small amount of money in exchange for someone taking the items away. Most big e-commerce outfits don’t handle their own returned merchandise, but selling their unwanted returns in smaller batches helps: instead of selling by the truckload, they perhaps sell only by the pallet.

  One company, Shorewood Liquidators, sells on its own auction site as well as on eBay, with final prices usually ending up at maybe half of the original retail price.

  Where Your Unwanted Christmas Gifts Get a Second Life [Wall Street Journal]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uTarget Jumps On Gift Card Exchange Bandwagon; Offers Customers Less Than Cards Are Worthr

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  With the bulk of the holiday celebrations having come and gone, you might be sitting around the dried-out Christmas tree counting up all those random gift cards you received. While you appreciate the generosity of your friends and family, you just don’t have any desire to make a purchase with said cards. To that end, a number of retailers are willing to offer you a trade; joining the ranks of Walmart, GameStop, and Coinstar this year is Target. 

  The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Target will offer a year-round gift card trade-in program in about 1,500 stores.

  The program, which started last month, is similar to Walmart’s past initiative in that the company doesn’t offer to pay a customer the full value of the traded card.

  Instead, once the card is brought to the mobile phone counter in the electronics department, an employee of Market Source — wearing a black shirt instead of the traditional Target red — will give customers an offer for a lesser amount based on the resale value of the card.

  For example, the company says, a $100 Walmart gift card can be exchanged for an $85 Target gift card.

  “We know guests sometimes have unwanted or unused gift cards and [we] want to give them a convenient option to put those unused dollars toward shopping at Target,” Kristy Welker, a Target spokeswoman, tells the Star Tribune.

  The retailer declined to provide information on how much it makes through the exchange program, which is slated to run year round.

  Target’s program is a partnership between the retailer, card exchange site Cardpool.com, and other vendors.

  Don’t like the gift card you got for Christmas? Target, other retailers will offer you a trade [Minneapolis Star Tribune]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uNo, Mark Zuckerberg Is Not Giving Away Millions In Facebook Stock To People Who Copy, Paste Somethingr

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  Have you ever heard of someone who was rewarded with millions of dollars just for copying and pasting text? It sounds like a hard job to get, because it is — it doesn’t exist. That’s why no one is going to get free shares of Facebook stock simply by slapping a chunk of text into a status message and posting it. You will, however, get more people to realize how gullible you are.

  In the most recent iteration of this particular Facebook hoax, the kind that somehow seeps into the collective conscious so thoroughly that even people you thought would know better succumb to it, users are copying and pasting a message that says by doing so, they could win free Facebook shares.

  

  This particular hoax seems to have a long life, and first appeared in early December before gaining steam again over Christmas. If you have posted that status in recent weeks, you probably already know that four hours from when you posted it, no one announced that any Facebook shares were being distributed to lucky posters.

  This all seems to stem from Zuckerberg’s real announcement that he and his wife, Priscilla, would be giving away nearly all of their Facebook shares — 99% — to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, LLC. The announcement was tied to the news of the birth of their daughter Max, in late November. But though that might’ve been discussed on Good Morning America, nowhere in the statement did Zuckerberg say the 99% would go to Facebook users who know how to copy and paste status messages.

  It’s not too late to take that status down before too many people see it. And next time, take a quick spin on Google to see if what you’re posting for the world to see is a hoax. If it involves millionaires giving strangers money for no good reason, it’s probably not true. You also won’t be charged to keep your profile private if you don’t share something.

  We reached out to Facebook for an official comment on the hoax messages and will update this post if we hear back.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uCoca-Cola Paid $550K Directly To Head Of Pro-Soda, Anti-Obesity Groupr

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• In addition to the funding that Coca-Cola provided to the now-defunct Global Energy Balance Network — an anti-obesity organization with a decidedly pro-soda bent — the cola giant also paid $550,000 directly to the GEBN president.

  The Denver Post reports that, starting in 2010, Coca-Cola began paying money to James Hill, director of the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, and eventual GEBN president.

  A rep for the company tells the Post the money paid to Hill was for work he did “prior to the establishment of Global Energy Balance Network. These funds paid for honoraria, travel, education activities and research on weight management.”

  Hill saw the world — Mexico, Grenada, England, Australia, and New Zealand — on Coke’s dime. He also asked a company exec — the same VP who would eventually push through the GEBN funding — to help him find a job at Coca-Cola for his son.

  In response to the Post’s report, Hill contends that he properly reported his Coke-funded trips to the school and that they helped “to present research to other scientists and to encourage physical activity and responsible eating habits.”

  However, the validity of Hill’s message — which stresses the importance of exercise and downplays the role of sugary drinks and food in the obesity epidemic — has been called into question because of the role that Coca-Cola played in backing his work.

  Back in 2009, the Coca-Cola VP behind GEBN (who has since resigned) wrote in an email that Hill would be “willing to do exercise and energy balance — focusing on why it is critical for maintaining a healthy weight.”

  In a 2014 email, Hill wrote that “It is not fair that Coca-Cola is signaled [sic] out as the #1 villain in the obesity world, but that is the situation and makes this your issue whether you like it or not. I want to help your company avoid the image of being a problem in peoples’ lives and back to being a company that brings important and fun things to them.”

  Earlier this year it was revealed that Coke had provided more than $1 million to the University of Colorado Foundation “for the purposes of funding” the GEBN.

  That was a case of the school and the soda behemoth attempting to have it both ways. The money from Coke was categorized as an “unrestricted monetary gift,” as opposed to direct funding for research. State law protects the identity of those who donate gifts.

  At the same time, as subsequently revealed emails showed, Coca-Cola had not only provided the money expressly for the funding of GEBN, but that the company was also heavily involved in shaping the group’s message.

  One email from a Coca-Cola exec likened GEBN to “a political campaign, we will develop, deploy and evolve a powerful and multi-faceted strategy to counter radical organizations and their proponents.”

  On Nov. 30, weeks after the university gave back $1.1 million to Coca-Cola, GEBN disbanded, posting a notice to the website that Coca-Cola had registered on the group’s behalf.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uAnalysts Predict Chipotle Sales Slump To Continue Into Late 2016 Amid Food Safety Issuesr

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  Back in November when Chipotle’s woes centered solely on a six-state E. coli outbreak, stock analysts predicted the company’s sales would be down for the fourth quarter. Now, with the addition of another rare strain of E. coli sickening five customers in two additional states and more than 150 students sick from norovirus in Boston, analysts are anticipating declining sales for the fast casual restaurant until at least September 2016.

  Business Insider reports that the recent string of food safety issues at Chipotle could result in prolonged sales declines for the company.

  While Chipotle warned previously that same store sales could fall 8% to 11% in the current quarter – the first decrease in sales for the company in its history – JPMorgan predicts the slide could be just the beginning.

  Analyst John Ivankoe tells BI that he believes Chipotle’s same-store sales will decline for at least the next five quarters, ending September 2016.

  As part of the prediction, Ivankoe says that sales at stores that have been open for at least a year will fall 13% this quarter, and then 12%, 7% and 4% throughout the first three quarters of 2016.

  The prolonged sales decline comes as Chipotle contends with news of a second E. coli outbreak affecting five customers in Kansas and Oklahoma and a norovirus outbreak that sickened more than 150 customers in Boston. That store recently reopened.

  “The new news flow shows the impact continuing and more importantly a management team that seems to be scrambling for answers,” Ivankoe writes in a research notes.

  Chipotle’s sales decline is just beginning [Business Insider]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uUnited Airlines Expands Age Range For Children Flying Alone Who Are Required To Use $150 Servicer

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  If you’ve got a tween who’s preparing to fly alone on United Airlines, you might end up paying a fee you weren’t prepared for: United Airlines has quietly expanded the age range of children who have to use a $150 service when flying without an accompanying adult, raising it from an upper limit of age 12 to age 15.

  Any tickets sold after Dec. 14 for children ages 5 to 15 who are flying alone will require a $150 fee for the airline’s “unaccompanied minor service,” according to United’s new policy. That service includes airline employees ushering children to their seats and making sure they’re picked up by a designated adult upon landing.

  As for why the airline made the change, United seems to have just decided 13-, 14-, and 15-year-olds need adults around to fly.

  “We made a thoughtful review of the policy and decided that this change will provide the best possible care for these travelers,” United spokesman Charles Hobart told the Los Angeles Times.

  It’s also a great way to get more money out of travelers, without adding any value, one airline revenue consultant told the LAT. The airline could’ve offered some kind of upgrade to the service, he says, instead of just dropping the new policy on parents.

  “Obviously, they are going to generate more revenue from this,” he said. “They should make an attempt to improve the product.”

  Delta and American Airlines charge the same $150 for unaccompanied minors, for kids ages 5 to 15. Southwest only requires the service for youths age 5 to 11, for $50.

  United Airlines makes changes to program for children flying alone [Los Angeles Times]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist