Internal Revenue Service

About: Internal Revenue Service is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Taxpayer & Tax credit. The organization has 171 authors who have published 185 publications receiving 3338 citations. The organization is also known as: IRS & Agenzia delle Entrate – Ministero dell’Economia e delle Finanze.

Are You Being Served? Political Accountability and Quality of Government

Abstract: This paper explores, both formally and empirically, the political accountability mechanisms that lie behind the varying levels of public corruption and of effective governance taking place across nations. The first section develops a principal-agent model in which good governance is a function of the extent to which citizens can hold political officials accountable for their actions. Although policy-makers may have strong incentives to appropriate parts of the citizens` income, well-designed institutions (those increasing both informational flows and elite competitiveness) boost political accountability and reduce the space left for the appropriation of rents. The following sections of the paper test the model. The presence of democratic mechanisms of control and an increasingly informed electorate, measured through the frequency of newspaper readership, explain considerably well the distribution of corrupt practices and governmental ineffectiveness in three types of data sets: a large cross-section of countries in the late 1990s for which an extensive battery of governance indicators has been recently developed by Kaufmann et al. (1999a); a panel data set for the period 1980-95 and about 100 nations on corruption and bureaucratic quality based on experts` rankings; and corruption data for the cross-section of US states in the period 1977-95.

Musculoskeletal disorders among visual display terminal users in a telecommunications company

Abstract: The relationship between workplace factors and work-related upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders (UE disorders) was assessed in a cross-sectional study of 533 telecommunication employees utilizing video display terminals (VDTs). Cases of UE disorders were defined using symptom questionnaires and physical examinations. Data on demographics, individual factors (medical conditions and recreational activities), work organization and practices, and psychosocial aspects of work, including electronic performance monitoring (EPM), were obtained by questionnaire. Associations between workplace factors and UE disorders were assessed by multiple logistic models generated for each of the four UE areas (neck, shoulder, elbow, hand/wrists). One-hundred and eleven (22%) participants met our case definition for UE disorders. Probable tendon-related disorders were the most common (15% of participants). Probable nerve entrapment syndromes were found in 4% of participants. The hand/wrist was the area most affected, 12%...

The assessment of end-user training needs

Abstract: ecent studies estimate that of the more than $50 billion that U.S. organizations spend on training annually [1], well over $5 billion is directed toward the users of information technology [10]. Despite the high dollar investment in end-user training (EUT), there was little evidence of verifiable returns or of effective results. Less than 50% of those organizations that evaluated their training programs attempted to measure the programs' impact on the organizations' budgets. Similarly, the American Society for Training and Development found that organizations conducted a training needs assessment less than 50% of the time [11]. When taken in aggregate, these studies present a rather discouraging scenario: the inputs into the training process are often not systematically identified while the outputs of the process are often not systematically evaluated. Therefore, a great deal of money and effort may be going into programs that reflect a precarious and ineffective \" Random In–Random Out, \" approach to training. Careful needs assessment and systematic evaluation are needed to guide improvements in training [5, 8, 9, 14]. Where needs assessment identifies the objectives of training, evaluation measures the accomplishment of objectives. Needs assessment, therefore, clearly sets the stage for effective training. Unfortunately only two substantive models have been offered to direct needs assessment: one by McGehee and Thayer in 1961 and the other by Ostroff and Ford in 1989. For over 30 years, both managers and researchers applied McGehee and Thayer's [12] approach to needs assessment that identifies three \" content \" areas—organizational, task, and person. However, most applications and investigations of needs assessment, including those focused on end-user training, have emphasized only the person component, ignoring the critical roles of the organizational and task components. For example, researchers from the fields of human resource management and information systems have elected to concentrate on such issues as the interaction between learning styles and types of learning tasks [18] cognitive learning models [3, 19] disposi-tions toward computers [4, 17] and human-computer interaction [20]. As Gash and Kossek contend, \" if managers persist in viewing end-user training as an individual-level phenomenon, they are wasting their money. Similarly, researchers who only focus on individual aspects of training are studying the wrong questions and overlooking critical organizational and strategic issues of training \" ([7] p. 230). In an attempt to broaden the narrow focus of practice and research, Ostroff and Ford [15] expanded on McGe-hee and Thayer's approach, developing …

Fungal Planet description sheets: 400–468

Abstract: Novel species of fungi described in the present study include the following from Australia: Vermiculariopsiella eucalypti, Mulderomyces natalis (incl. Mulderomyces gen. nov.), Fusicladium paraamoenum, Neotrimmatostroma paraexcentricum, and Pseudophloeospora eucalyptorum on leaves of Eucalyptus spp., Anungitea grevilleae (on leaves of Grevillea sp.), Pyrenochaeta acaciae (on leaves of Acacia sp.), and Brunneocarpos banksiae (incl. Brunneocarpos gen. nov.) on cones of Banksia attenuata. Novel foliicolous taxa from South Africa include Neosulcatispora strelitziae (on Strelitzia nicolai), Colletotrichum ledebouriae (on Ledebouria floridunda), Cylindrosympodioides brabejum (incl. Cylindrosympodioides gen. nov.) on Brabejum stellatifolium, Sclerostagonospora ericae (on Erica sp.), Setophoma cyperi (on Cyperus sphaerocephala), and Phaeosphaeria breonadiae (on Breonadia microcephala). Novelties described from Robben Island (South Africa) include Wojnowiciella cissampeli and Diaporthe cissampeli (both on Cissampelos capensis), Phaeotheca salicorniae (on Salicornia meyeriana), Paracylindrocarpon aloicola (incl. Paracylindrocarpon gen. nov.) on Aloe sp., and Libertasomyces myopori (incl. Libertasomyces gen. nov.) on Myoporum serratum. Several novelties are recorded from La Reunion (France), namely Phaeosphaeriopsis agapanthi (on Agapanthus sp.), Roussoella solani (on Solanum mauritianum), Vermiculariopsiella acaciae (on Acacia heterophylla), Dothiorella acacicola (on Acacia mearnsii), Chalara clidemiae (on Clidemia hirta), Cytospora tibouchinae (on Tibouchina semidecandra), Diaporthe ocoteae (on Ocotea obtusata), Castanediella eucalypticola, Phaeophleospora eucalypticola and Fusicladium eucalypticola (on Eucalyptus robusta), Lareunionomyces syzygii (incl. Lareunionomyces gen. nov.) and Parawiesneriomyces syzygii (incl. Parawiesneriomyces gen. nov.) on leaves of Syzygium jambos. Novel taxa from the USA include Meristemomyces arctostaphylos (on Arctostaphylos patula), Ochroconis dracaenae (on Dracaena reflexa), Rasamsonia columbiensis (air of a hotel conference room), Paecilomyces tabacinus (on Nicotiana tabacum), Toxicocladosporium hominis (from human broncoalveolar lavage fluid), Nothophoma macrospora (from respiratory secretion of a patient with pneumonia), and Penidiellopsis radicularis (incl. Penidiellopsis gen. nov.) from a human nail. Novel taxa described from Malaysia include Prosopidicola albizziae (on Albizzia falcataria), Proxipyricularia asari (on Asarum sp.), Diaporthe passifloricola (on Passiflora foetida), Paramycoleptodiscus albizziae (incl. Paramycoleptodiscus gen. nov.) on Albizzia falcataria, and Malaysiasca phaii (incl. Malaysiasca gen. nov.) on Phaius reflexipetalus. Two species are newly described from human patients in the Czech Republic, namely Microascus longicollis (from toenails of patient with suspected onychomycosis), and Chrysosporium echinulatum (from sole skin of patient). Furthermore, Alternaria quercicola is described on leaves of Quercus brantii (Iran), Stemphylium beticola on leaves of Beta vulgaris (The Netherlands), Scleroderma capeverdeanum on soil (Cape Verde Islands), Scleroderma dunensis on soil, and Blastobotrys meliponae from bee honey (Brazil), Ganoderma mbrekobenum on angiosperms (Ghana), Geoglossum raitviirii and Entoloma kruticianum on soil (Russia), Priceomyces vitoshaensis on Pterostichus melas (Carabidae) (Bulgaria) is the only one for which the family is listed, Ganoderma ecuadoriense on decaying wood (Ecuador), Thyrostroma cornicola on Cornus officinalis (Korea), Cercophora vinosa on decorticated branch of Salix sp. (France), Coprinus pinetorum, Coprinus littoralis and Xerocomellus poederi on soil (Spain). Two new genera from Colombia include Helminthosporiella and Uwemyces on leaves of Elaeis oleifera. Two species are described from India, namely Russula intervenosa (ectomycorrhizal with Shorea robusta), and Crinipellis odorata (on bark of Mytragyna parviflora). Novelties from Thailand include Cyphellophora gamsii (on leaf litter), Pisolithus aureosericeus and Corynascus citrinus (on soil). Two species are newly described from Citrus in Italy, namely Dendryphiella paravinosa on Citrus sinensis, and Ramularia citricola on Citrus floridana. Morphological and culture characteristics along with ITS nrDNA barcodes are provided for all taxa.

On the external validity of laboratory tax compliance experiments

Abstract: I. INTRODUCTION Laboratory methods are now widely accepted as a methodological approach in economics and, increasingly, they have been used to examine specific public policy issues. There is much to be gained from careful laboratory experiments. They offer a low cost means of testing (and replicating) policy innovations, and they generate precise data on individual behavior, thereby allowing estimation of behavioral responses. Importantly, they allow many policy innovations to be introduced singly and exogenously in a controlled environment, and as a result, laboratory experiments are typically seen as having a high degree of "internal validity" (Brewer 2000; Campbell and Stanley 1966; Shadish, Cook, and Campbell 2002) because the causal relation between variables can be properly demonstrated. However, as emphasized by Plott (1987), using laboratory experiments can allow more general inferences regarding human behavior only when the setting implemented in the laboratory parallels what is observed in the naturally occurring world. Even beyond this requirement of "parallelism" is the need for generalizing behavioral observations from the laboratory to the field, or "external validity." Internal validity can be demonstrated through the evaluation of the design. However, external validity can only be verified empirically and only with respect to the specific setting being investigated. This paper investigates the external validity of laboratory experiments, and does so in the context of experiments on tax compliance behavior. Tax evasion is central to many important policy questions. Current estimates report the "tax gap" (or difference between taxes owed and taxes paid) in the United States to be $450 billion annually (Internal Revenue Service 2012). Beyond these massive revenue losses, evasion creates major misallocations in resource use when individuals alter their behavior to cheat on their taxes. Its presence requires that government expend resources to detect noncompliance, to measure its magnitude, and to penalize tax evasion. Evasion alters the distribution of income in arbitrary, unpredictable, and unfair ways, and it may contribute to feelings of unjust treatment and disrespect for the law. More broadly, it is not possible to understand the true impact of taxation without recognizing the existence and the effects of tax evasion. Laboratory methods have been used to examine a wide range of policies that may affect the compliance decision, policies that have not always proven amenable to either theoretical analyses or empirical analyses with field data. However, laboratory studies of compliance are sometimes viewed with skepticism. The most common criticism is that the student subjects typically used in experiments may not be representative of taxpayers. Undergraduates may have little experience with filing tax returns, and their economic and demographic backgrounds may differ from those of taxpayers. Another criticism is that the context of laboratory compliance experiments does not closely enough resemble the context in which actual compliance decisions are made. As a result, there is a concern that experimental results on policy innovations that rely upon student subjects in laboratory compliance experiments cannot be generalized to the population. It is this issue that we examine here. Building on previous research, we present several types of evidence on the external validity of experiments on individual compliance decisions. A first question examines whether behavior of laboratory participants is replicated by behavior of individuals making a similar decision in the naturally occurring world; that is, do participants in laboratory experiments exhibit different patterns of behavior than individuals in a similar naturally occurring setting? To answer this question, we utilize a special data set from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assembled as part of its National Research Program (NRP). …