Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

In this lively book, veteran tax attorney Michael Savage provides essential tax advice to small business owners who often get into deep financial trouble--not because they're any less honest, but because they don't know where the potential tax land mines line.

This book situates information technology at the centre of public policy and management. IT is now a vital part of any government organisation, opening new policy windows and enabling a vast range of tasks to be carried out faster and more efficiently. But it has also introduced new problems and challenges. Four in-depth case studies demonstrate how information systems have become inextricably linked with the core tasks of governmental organisations. The key government departments examined are: * the Inland Revenue Service and Social Security Administration in the US * the Inland Revenue and Benefits Agency in the UK

This volume widens the perspective of the roles that records play in society. As opposed to most writings in the discipline of archives and records management, which view records from cultural, historical, and economical efficiency dimensions, this volume highlights one of the most salient features of records: the role they play as sources of accountability. The authors demonstrate that records are not mute observers and recordings of activity, rather, they are frequently objects of memory formation and erasure.

Everybody knows federal agencies are brain-dead leviathans. Everybody knows that the watchword of federal management is "that's the way we've always done it." Everybody knows that any creativity within American government shows up only in the cities and states. Everybody's wrong. In 1995 the Ford Foundation's annual "Innovation in American Government" award competition was opened up to federal candidates and a third of the winners since then have been federal institutions. This book profiles the 14 federal award winners from 1995 to 1998 and challenges the conventional wisdom about the federal bureaucracy's capacity to adapt. Examples include the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which figured out how to identify and act upon business and government's shared stake in keeping dangerous products out of consumers' hands; and the Wage and Hour inspectors in the Labor Department, who deployed market leverage to put pressure on the garment-industry scofflaws whose sweatshops had evaded conventional enforcement.,The stories show how pressure, promises, and professional pride can galvanize federal managers and front-line workers to overcome what are admittedly imposing impediments to change, and persevere with new ways to deliver on their missions. And they illustrate the unfashionable truth that innovation is within Washington's repertoire after all. Copublished with the Council for Excellence in Government

Fraud and abuse bleeds more than 100 billion dollars each year out of the U.S. health system. This detailed examination shows the problem is worse than almost anyone knows, mostly invisible, and still far from controlled. Sparrow reveals that current control systems fail by presenting fraud perpetrators with a safe, easy-to-hit target: fully automated check-printing systems, which only require thieves to bill "correctly", regardless of whether or not any medical service is provided. This target attracts an extraordinary range of criminal entrepreneurs, from low-life hoods who sign on as Medicare or Medicaid providers equipped with nothing more than beepers and mailboxes, to drug trafficking organizations, organized crime syndicates, even major hospital chains. Sparrow's research examines the much-misunderstood effects of managed care on the problem, the government's recent attempts to grapple with fraud, and the campaign by various provider associations to undermine those efforts.

This timely volume objectively addresses the major issues and questions raised about student aid programs. It examines the realities of student loans and provides a balanced analysis of the present and future prospects for financing higher education. Educators, guarantee agency administrators, and state and federal officials analyze student indebtedness and the repayment of loans. They evaluate how five other industrialized nations structure grants and education loan programs and address the challenging problem of extending opportunities for higher education to low-income students.