This letter follows up on my June 9, 1999 letter about the Paperwork Reduction Act. For
our oversight needs, I requested that, starting July 1st, the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) keep detailed and complete records about OMB's role in government-wide paperwork
reduction.

For the July 1st through September 30th quarter, please provide a chart in the exact format shown in the Attachment to this letter identifying any substantive change to an agency paperwork submission made by OMB and each additional paperwork reduction candidate independently identified by OMB.

Your response should be delivered to the Subcommittee majority staff in B-377 Rayburn House Office Building and the minority staff in B-350A Rayburn House Office Building not later than noon on Friday, November 19, 1999. If you have any questions about this request, please call Professional Staff Member Barbara Kahlow on 226-3058. Thank you for your attention to this request.

OMB Changes to Agencies' Proposed and Existing Paperwork Burden

Recently I had the pleasure of watching you on C-Span regarding your involvement with the IRS Reform and Management. Listening to the individuals that were testifying and the concerns you and Representative Ryan had of the excessive paperwork and abuse by the IRS has prompted me to write this letter.

First, I would like to give you a little background information of our operation. Our farming operation consists of an Agricultural Limited Liability Company and a family held Agricultural Corporation with my wife, three daughters, and myself as the sole stockholders. These two entities have helped in the process of trying to pass the business from one generation to the next without the tax collectors ending up with the farm. My daughters are the fourth generation to be involved in agriculture and pig production in this community, which is highly unusual. I would hope that my grandsons could carry on the tradition. My concern is if the regulatory trend continues, they will not have this opportunity. We farm over 3,000 acres and produce over 30,000 pigs yearly in our farrow-to-finish operation. Besides family members involved in the operation, we also have 20 other employees.

Paperwork has become almost unbearable. Between environmental issues, payroll tax, unemployment tax, income tax, property tax, and the Department of Labor, the complexity and involvement of all these forms is now taking one office employee over 1000 hours a year to comply. When our professional tax preparer and attorney fees are included with our office personnel, this costs our business over $20,000 annually to comply with all the paperwork.

Even more frightening than the above is the IRS attitude of the taxpayer being guilty until proven innocent and their police type tactics. Enclosed you will find copies of four (4) correspondence that my tax preparer suggested that I share with you.

As you can see, these notices started on March 1, 1999 concerning overpayment notice of $ 19,045.64. The next notice was on March 29, concerning a change in our return “Amount Due IRS of $ 19,770.23". The third notice was on April 19, “URGENT!, We intend to levy on certain assets. Please respond NOW, amount due $ 19,957.15". Lastly, the fourth notice on April 19, indicated we had a credit adjustment and now owe $ 266.20.

Bear in mind while this scenario was going on, our tax preparer, who has a Masters in Agriculture Economics, was in correspondence with the IRS trying to straighten out this mess. He is of the opinion that we do not owe any additional tax and may even have a refund. He is still working on it. He also indicated that in trying to correspond with the IRS over the phone, he was treated quite rudely and could not obtain any information from them. Our tax preparer also indicated that trying to use the expedited tax process for hog farmers has not expedited the process at all, if anything it has delayed the process.

Our operation recently had an audit from the Department of Labor. In order to get the necessary documentation, it took two office people one week to prepare and we had to meet with our accountant and attorney. Obviously all of this is costly and non-productive. The good news is that the auditor indicated that everything was in order and agricultural is exempt from most of the rules that apply to other businesses, which we already knew.

I resent a few lawmakers and most regulatory people who insinuate that farmers and small business owners are crooks. Agriculture and small business owners are the backbone of this nation and their integrity should not be in question. As you can tell from this letter, the frustration level is extremely high. We have literally lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity these last few months due to the historic low hog prices. Besides the losses we have had to deal with, the barrage of paperwork and regulations from the government just keep coming. If family members of the next generation and several key employees that are like family did not want to be involved in agriculture, I would throw up my hands and quit.

In summary, those of us involved in this farming operation would just like to do our job of producing food and fiber for this nation, which we do extremely well I might add, and quit being overwhelmed with all the paperwork. The vast majority of producers that are involved in agriculture do not break the law or violate the environment. Enclosed is an article from an award in 1995 that might be of interest to you.

I hope this information will be of help to you. If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me. Phone: (785) 325-2510; Fax: (785) 325-3134;

E-mail: kab@idir.net It was reassuring to me when you informed the individuals that testified, there would be no ramifications or any type of harassment from any of the government agencies for their testimony. Without that assurance, I probably would not have written this letter.