I haven't heard or read of any major mishaps with any IRS filings going on. Is it safe to interpret that the IRS is Y2K compliant?

Also, I was wondering how mortgage lenders and banks have been dealing with handing out 30 year mortgages that must have to forecast beyond 2000 and take that into account. Is it safe to say that all lending organizations and banks that deal with mortgages are also Y2K compliant? For that matter I would have thought that any lending institution that has issued loans for cars, etc. within the last year at least must have had to project beyond 2000, does that mean they too are Y2K compliant?

Also, credit organizations that are issuing cards with expiry dates of 00 and beyond have to be compliant too don't they? When these same cards function without any mishap in an ATM machine is it then safe to assume that that ATM machine is Y2K compliant. Or is it still vulnerable to embedded micro-processors malfunctioning on Jan 1, 2000, or thereafter?

Also, MVA's that are issuing driver's licenses that expire beyond 00 have to be compliant too don't they?

Where I work I have just received a computerised projection for my pension plan that goes beyond 2000. Can I take it that the system that produced this projection is Y2K compliant?

-- Lurking (thru@timebomb2000.com), March 09, 1999

Answers

Havent had time to read this one yet. -- Diane

See ...

GAO: Recent Reports (Arranged by Title)

http:// www.gao.gov/new.items/newtitle.htm

IRS' Year 2000 Efforts: Status and Remaining Challenges. T-GGD-99-35. 16 pp. February 24, 1999.

Testimony before the Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives -- PDF Format, 20 pages.

http:// www.gao.gov/new.items/gg99035t.pdf

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 09, 1999.

Lurking,

The short answer to your question is that the financial sector is the best prepared for Y2K, while utilities are the LEAST prepared sector.

As you pointed out, certain departments in banks and similiar institutions have had to deal with post-1999 dates for a long time. When it got to the late 1990's, these institutions knew they had better starting making all their departments Y2K compliant.

The biggest problem facing the U.S. financial system isn't non- compliance on its part. The problem would be non-compliant foreign banks, plus bad loans with bankrupt businesses here and overseas.

Again, U.S. banks in and of themselves should be in good shape. It's utilities and other sectors of the economy that concern me. The credit card industry had its warning two or three years ago about Y2K when cards with post-1999 dates wouldn't work.

It's businesses and utilities that did not have this kind of early warning and who waited until 1998 to begin Y2K remediation that concern me.

The IRS? See this link:

http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,27886,00.html?st.ne.ni.lh

This would have been good news, if true. Let's see how quickly tax refunds come back this spring.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), March 09, 1999.

E-filed for my refund and had it direct deposited in my account in 12 days. Works for me!

-- happy camper (spendin'it@anywhere.com), March 09, 1999.

Thank you for the replies.

BTW I am a definite GI. I'm just finding it hard to try and figure out how bad it is going to be.

-- Lurking (thru@timebomb2000.com), March 09, 1999.

There isn't a chance in the world the IRS will be compliant, let alone is compliant (cf Social Security beginning 10 years ago and they may barely make it, once testing is complete).

The disastrous condition of Medicare, IRS and Postal Service guarantees a depression post-Y2K all by themselves.

The condition of the Defense Department guarantees several of the scaryist years internationally since WW II.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), March 09, 1999.

Lurking - I wouldn't say that all mortgage companies are Y2K ready at this time. True - we have been dealing with 2000 dates for loan maturity for some time now. That is just a very small piece of mortgage software. 65% of single-family mortgages are run on our software - I can tell you that these comanies are Y2K ready as far as that piece of their business goes. A couple other service bureaus comprise roughly 25% of the market and the rest run on home-grown systems. I can't speak for these.

GSE (FNMA, FHLMC, GNMA, etc..) reporting will be the biggest hurdle for us. Their systems are very old and ours are state-of-the-art, but we have been testing with them with minimal failures.

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), March 09, 1999.

Shades of things to come? -- Diane

Planning for Y2K disrupts income tax services (Israel)

MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, March 9, 1999
Breaking News Sections

(03-09) 11:17 PST JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's income tax collectors didn't wait for the Y2K bug to shut down their computers at the end of the year -- they inadvertently disrupted service a year early.

The glitch occured when they tried to bug-proof the computers of the Israel Tax Authorities, and thousands of grumbling taxpayers found themselves overpaying.

The mess at the tax office is an indication of the kinds of problems in store for Israelis -- and people worldwide -- as the millennium draws near. ... More ...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi- bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/03/09/ international1417EST0626.DTL

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), March 09, 1999.

NATIONAL SALES TAX!!!!

A national sales tax would never pass legislation, because it is unconstitutional. The constitution mentions TWICE that no direct tax shall be laid. Then why are you paying income tax? Why do you waive your constitutional rights by signing your income tax form UNDER PENALTIES OF PERJURY? Read the Bill of Rights and learn what your rights are as an American!!!!

The way the tax system is set up now, it is voluntary. Many IRS publications and the IRS Agents handbook say that the income tax is voluntary. That is the only way the income tax can be legal in America.

You will NEVER see the word "Mandantory" anywhere in the IRS Code, Title 26!!! In fact there is no Statute in the IRS Code that makes Americans liable for the income tax. In fact there are several legal minds on the internet offering thousands of dollars reward if you can find such a statute. Bill Conklin on the internet offers a $50,000 reward! If you are really convinced that you are required to pay income tax, you might do some studying in the IRS Code to collect $50,000. However, be forewarned, your search will be futile!

Face it, America, there is no such law. It just cannot be found. If you think you are required to file income tax, you are being hoodwinked! The IRS claims that as many as 35 million Americans do not file income tax, including myself. There is no such thing as "paying my fair share". Our government can print up as much money as it wants to run the government! IT DOES NOT NEED YOUR MONEY!

The only reason income tax is collected is to take money out of circulation to stop inflation. The IRS sends your tax money to the Federal Reserve Bank (A private bank owened by foreign bankers) and then it disappears into THIN AIR!!!

-- IRS sucks (IRSsucks@freedomatlast.com), March 10, 1999.

IRS is a scam -- people pay only through ignorance, threat and fraud.

If you want to continue getting reamed, ignore this post and those like above.

If you are not a wussy girlie-man, check out
http://goodbiz.com/tbks/

-- a (A@AisA.com), March 10, 1999.

Shades of things to come...this started in January and it's just now being reported, unless I missed it earlier.

R.

*******************************************************************************

Planning for Y2K disrupts income tax services

By MARK LAVIE The Associated Press 03/09/99 2:17 PM Eastern

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's income tax collectors didn't wait for the Y2K bug to shut down their computers at the end of the year -- they inadvertently disrupted service a year early.

The glitch occured when they tried to bug-proof the computers of the Israel Tax Authorities, and thousands of grumbling taxpayers found themselves overpaying.

The mess at the tax office is an indication of the kinds of problems in store for Israelis -- and people worldwide -- as the millennium draws near.

Israel prides itself in being high-tech, but experts said Tuesday the country was not adequately prepared to tackle the Y2K problem -- the confusion created when computers programed to keep track of the year with only two digits don't know how to read the year 2000.

Israel's Finance Ministry has been coordinating efforts to prepare the nation's computers for 2000. However, overworked government clerks missed a June 1998 deadline to update the most critical computer systems, such as those in hospitals.

That led Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to appoint his chief of staff, Moshe Leon, to supervise the effort. But critics still complain the work isn't being done quickly enough.

"It's a scandal that Israel does not have a national body to deal with the 2000 bug," legislator Alex Lubotsky, chairman of parliament's Science Committee, said, urging the Defense Ministry to take over and accelerate preparations.

Worldwide, countries have been racing against the clock to weed out millennium computer bugs, which could threaten airline safety, banking and even defense systems. American officials have said most industrialized nations are making progress but developing countries with scarce resources are further behind.

The trouble at Israel's tax office started Jan. 1, the beginning of Israel's fiscal year, when computer programs are routinely changed.

Government computer experts decided this would be a good time to develop a Y2K-proof program. But the new software was not ready on time -- creating chaos in tax offices, which no longer had programs for updating files or generating the tax-deduction forms critical to determining workers' take-home pay.

Without the tax-deduction forms, employers were required to deduct half of a worker's pay for income tax.

Understandably, that led to an outcry from taxpayers and tax collectors had no choice but to turn back the clock -- literally.

"Instructions were given to clerks to issue handwritten permits," said Sarit Giladi-Dor, spokeswoman for the Income Tax Authority.

For three months, copies of the scrawled forms have been piling up on the desks of 35 tax offices around the country, waiting to be entered into the computer. Tax advisers and accountants were often unable to even access their clients' files, said Jerusalem tax adviser Yitzhak Becker.

Now the end of "Bug 99" is in sight, but it's just the start of work for the clerks.

The Y2K-friendly program is being tried in four Israeli tax offices, and so far it apparently works. It is to be installed nationwide next week.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), March 10, 1999.