Winter 2007 Client Profile:
We
are pleased to feature our client,
Putting on the Ritz Catering.
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Bobby Mitchell
began catering in 1983, working from the kitchen of Ma’s Kettle, his
mother’s restaurant, which is now a well known historic establishment in
Savage, MD. His exciting ideas have expanded Putting on the Ritz to become
the 10th largest catering business in the Baltimore-Washington area, according to The
Book of Lists 2007 Magazine. Bobby served on the Board of Directors of
Howard Community College, a member of National Association of Catering
Executives (NACE). He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including
Best Caterer in Howard County in 2004 and 2006. Bobby’s passion for Catering
is the force behind Putting on the Ritz.
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Putting on the Ritz started with two employees
and now has over 45 full-time and 80 part-time employees. They are the
exclusive caterers for The Great Room at Savage Mill and The Manor House in
S a v a g e , MD, and The Gathering Place and Ten Oaks Ballroom, both in
Clarksville, MD. Some of their exciting ventures in concert catering
include: The Rolling Stones, Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney, Vince Gill, and
Patty LaBelle, just to name a few. Some of the notable locations they have
catered include The Supreme Court for the Chief Justice, the Capitol
building and the State House in Annapolis. Family-owned and with
seasoned, award-winning gourmet chefs and staff, the Putting on the Ritz
team plans it all – transportation, entertainment, location scheduling, and
more. Their promise is “Your
event will be the talk of the town.”
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BG&A Announces
Formation of Business Scholarship Fund! |
The partners
and staff of Bormel, Grice & Associates, in its continuing efforts
to support the community, have created the Bormel, Grice & Associates
Business Scholarship Fund.
This fund will
be maintained and administered by the Baltimore Washington Corridor Chamber
Foundation. The BG&A Fund will |
provide the
resources to award a $1,000 annual college scholarship to an area high
school senior who expresses a desire to pursue a business related degree
in college.
The initial fundraising
drive kick-off was a silent auction supported by the BG&A staff. Contributions
to the fund will primarily be made by the BG&A firm, partners, staff,
family, friends and business contacts.
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Tax
deductible contributions to the BG&A Business Scholarship Fund can
be made payable to The BWCC Foundation in amounts ranging from $25 to $1,000
and sent to our Greenview Drive office address.
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| Statistical
information on IRS audit rates and tax return filings may tend to convince
some taxpayers that the risks of getting caught do not outweigh the likelihood
of successfully reducing tax liability in a variety of situations. Not
only does the audit rate continue to drop for most tax-payers, but the
chances of a criminal conviction on tax fraud are down to practically zero
for the general population.
An IRS spokesperson
has indicated that the audit rates will continue to fall in 1999, as the
IRS focuses more intently on preventive measures such as taxpayer education.
Since 1994, the time spent by IRS auditors examining returns has been reduced
by some estimates as much as 25% for individuals and 15% for businesses.
A detailed report
on 1998 fiscal year audit activity released by a watchdog group affiliated
with Syracuse University stressed that high-income individuals now have
a negligible chance of being audited and large corporations have relatively
low odds of an audit as well. Reportedly, for individual returns, the 1998
fiscal year IRS audit rate is down to 0.99% from 1.28% for the 1997 FY.
In comparison, |
back
in 1995 the audit rate was 1.67%.
The IRS is putting
its best spin on these statistics, arguing that the data show that pinpoint
computer selection is working, and that taxpayer education, which can eliminate
many otherwise audit-worthy mistakes on returns, is also working. In addition,
the IRS says that since it is now allowed to correct mathematical errors
without contacting taxpayers, it no longer counts such corrections in its
audit statistics.
Back in February,
the General Accounting Office released a report on the IRS's return selection
process in which it revealed that 59 percent of all returns are selected
for audit by IRS using discriminant function (DIF) scoring. The DIF return
selection yields a higher (57 percent) collection rate than for the returns
selected using non-DIF sources.
The DIF calculation
is based on a series of formulas developed by the IRS that are designed
to indicate the returns that have the highest probability of tax change
if audited. All filed returns are assigned a DIF score. Returns with DIF
scores above a national cutoff |
are
then placed in DIF inventory, from which they may be selected for audit
by a district office.
Computers also
are being used extensively in information return matching programs. In
1996, for example, the IRS used computer matching to identify about 3.2
million taxpayers who may have under-reported income on returns or who
may have not filed the required returns. IRS officials point to this success
as one reason the overall audit coverage rate can decrease with no loss
of revenues. Nevertheless, the GAO estimates that at the time individual
taxpayers submit their returns, there continues to be about a $100 billion
shortfall in actual tax liabilities remaining unpaid.
The latest Statistics
of Income Bulletin contains a special report on high-income tax returns
that will be sure to put more pressure on the IRS to address what may be
perceived as an unfairness in the tax and audit system. Over 1.5 million
individual income tax returns reported at least $200,000 of AGI. Although
this figure represents1.26 percent of all returns filed, it indicates a
19percent increase over the previous year.
Since approximately
75% of all returns are now prepared by paid preparers, one measure that
IRS will likely use to increase compliance without increasing the audit
rate is to put pressure on tax preparers with preparer penalties designed
to persuade preparers to question and verify information more carefully.
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