BOND UNVEILS HIGH-TECH TAX POLL

Business owners can tell the Internal Revenue Service just what they think about all those federal tax forms thanks to the Internet.

U.S. Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond on Wednesday unveiled a high-tech window through the Internet that will allow business owners to vote for the IRS form that is most in need of being rewritten and simplified.

Bond, who chairs the Senate Committee on Small Business, said the committee's "paperwork unpopularity poll" at http://sbc.senate.gov will be open for small businesses and the self-employed to cast their votes over the next year.

Identities of poll respondents will be kept confidential, but the results will be compiled and reported to IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti as part of an effort to reduce the tax-filing burden on small business.

"While no business will have to file them all, a startling universe of forms and schedules, including more than 8,000 lines, boxes, data requirements and 700 pages of instructions, await Americans attempting to comply with the law and make a living by running their own business," Bond said.

"Even more startling is the fact that 76 percent of small business owners hired a tax professional to help them meet their tax obligations," Bond said.

He wants to periodically present Rossotti with a list of IRS forms, notices and instructions that are in the most need of "common-sense review and revision."