DIOCESE CAN'T HANDLE IRS DATA

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 16, 1992                   TAG: 9202170196
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short
DIOCESE CAN'T HANDLE IRS DATA
A Richmond religious organization is among several nationwide questioning a Bush administration plan to help the Internal Revenue Service catch taxpayers who inflate the amount of their deductible contributions.
The president's budget proposal for 1993 contains a provision to require each of the nation's churches, synagogues and temples to report to the IRS the names of donors who give them more than $500 per year.
The administration claims the change would save the federal treasury $100 million annually through 1996 and recover $200 million in 1997. The IRS now has to take the word of the taxpayer in listing charitable deduction claims.
John Barrett, director of finance for the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, said about 25 percent of his diocese's parishes are small and most of them have staffs of "a priest and a volunteer bookkeeper."
With little expertise there, the IRS mostly likely will be inundated with incorrect data, Barrett told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. - Associated Press

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB