Questions for the Tax Lady: May 17th, 2010

Check out the following new Questions for the Tax Lady answers and feel free to ask me questions through one of the links below. You can send me an email, direct message or @ reply, and I will do my best to get an answer for you!

Question #1: I had a Toyota that I turned in before the end of its lease back in 1997. It took Toyota until 2008 to report the mileage to the IRS, and Toyota didn't send me anything to dispute them. The IRS now claims I own them over $800 and they ate my entire refund this year and are now saying I still owe them $300. What should I do?

I am assuming that you are talking about business miles that you deducted on your return, which you include on your tax return the year the miles were driven. I do not quite understand why the IRS would withhold your refund for a mileage issue from 1997, and highly recommend contacting them directly at 1-800-829-1040 to find out why your refund was withheld. If you need any further assistance then I would recommend talk to professional accountant, CPA or tax attorney in order to get to the bottom of this issue.

Question #2: How do I contact the Taxpayer Advocate Service?

Answer: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is a free service offered by the Federal government, but not every taxpayer will qualify for TAS assistance. You must meet certain income requirements and be able to prove that you are experiencing an economic burden because of the IRS collections. To find out if you qualify to work with the TAS call the Taxpayer Advocate Service Case Intake at 1-877-777-4778. If you do meet their requirements, then head over to this page on IRS.gov to find a local office to contact.

The Humbling of Toyota

International automaker Toyota has been in the headlines for weeks because of the controversy surrounding their acceleration problems, which have led to an estimated 51 deaths in the country. Earlier today, I came across this article on Business Week explaining how the companies once rewarding frugality turned in to its worst enemy causing millions of recalls. Checkout a section of the interesting piece below, or find the full text at Business Week.com.

Toyota Motor has always been fanatical about frugality, and for many years that was good for both the company and its customers. This is a Japanese carmaker that routinely turned down the heat at its employee dormitories during working hours and labeled photocopy machines with the cost per copy to discourage overuse. Its engineers collaborated with suppliers to extract cost-savings without compromising quality. Yet by the middle of the last decade Toyota's virtue had become a vice.

So say current and former auto executives who are trying to grasp how Toyota, with its gold-plated reputation for engineering excellence, slipped up on such a scale, with 8 million cars recalled due to mechanical failures linked by U.S. regulators to 51 deaths. Before company officials knew that runaway acceleration was causing crashes, one of these executives says, a simple manufacturing process would sometimes ignite small fires in a component as a direct result of corner-cutting. It was just one early sign that the focus on cost reduction had gone too far.

Those production mishaps occurred in 2006, a year after company President Katsuaki Watanabe boasted about having squeezed more than $10 billion from global operating costs in the previous six years—this despite an impressive run of profit growth and global market share gains in the middle of the last decade. Then Toyota pushed even harder for more cuts. It asked suppliers to design parts for its Camry midsize sedan that were 10% cheaper and 10% lighter. The company's top U.S. executive, Jim Press, warned his bosses in Japan that vehicle quality was slipping, according to a slide presentation U.S. Senate investigators unearthed in their sudden-acceleration probe. But his warning had no apparent effect.

Toyota to End Calif. Joint Venture with GM

Just last week I posted a blog entry discussing how California lawmakers were struggling to find a way to save the State’s last remaining auto plant. However, earlier today I came across this Associated Press article published by the SacBee.com announcing that Toyota Motor Corporation has indeed decided to liquidate its joint venture with General Motors. For those of you who do not recall, the plant assembled vehicles for both Toyota and GM. However, just because Toyota is pulling out does not mean the factory will close, but it does not give GM a short time frame to decide the fate of the factory and the 6,400 California taxpayers it employs. Check out a clip from the AP story below, or check out the full article below.

Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to liquidate its stake in a California manufacturing plant that it jointly operated with General Motors, a Japanese news agency reported Thursday.

The Japanese carmaker will begin negotiating with the "Old GM" starting next week, Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed company officials.

Toyota spokesman Mike Goss would not confirm that the Japanese automaker had made a final decision on the fate of Fremont, Calif.-based New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., also known as NUMMI. Goss said Toyota will begin negotiations with the GM officials about the plant and added that the company is conducting an "extensive review" of its production needs.

A GM spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment.

Nummi's fate was thrown into question last month when GM announced it was withdrawing from the 50-50 joint venture. GM emerged from bankruptcy protection shortly after the announcement and the company's stake in NUMMI is now part of Motors Liquidation Co. - also known as Old GM - where it will be liquidated under court supervision.

The NUMMI plant, established in 1984, employs 4,600 workers and makes the Pontiac Vibe station wagon for GM, and the Corolla compact car and Tacoma pickup truck for Toyota.

Toyota To Slow Down U.S. Factory Expansion

According to Reuters, top executives at Toyota Motor Corporation are increasingly becoming concerned that the company has built too many United States factories. They are urging the company to cease their continued expansion of factories throughout the U.S. warning that sales may not keep pace with the company's recent capacity increases. As a result Toyota has scaled back plans for a $1.3 billion assembly plant to be built in Mississippi. The original plan called for the plant to have an annual production capacity of 200,000 units however it was revised to an planned capacity of only 150,000.