WE all have dreams. I dream of being so successful an author that I am interviewed in the FT under their ‘Small Talk' feature with writers. Were I to be the interviewee and were I asked who I would like to sit next to at a dinner party, it would not be a literary figure, it would be someone in a different sort of limelight: Nina Olson, the Taxpayer Advocate General who has taken on this job in a very serious manner, becoming a thorn in the side of many (especially the IRS) because she has been so bold in making hers a position of impact (even when she is ‘blind sided' in her attempts to do the right thing….time after time after time…..). Ms. Olson proposed a taxpayer's bill of rights in 2007. Here we are, 7 years later - that's how long it took for the IRS to announce, on 9 June, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, virtually word for word as proposed by Ms. Olson. Here it is:

Taxpayer Bill of Rights

The Right to Be Informed: Taxpayers have the right to know what they need to do to comply with the tax laws. They are entitled to clear explanations of the laws and IRS procedures in all tax forms, instructions, publications, notices, and correspondence. They have the right to be informed of IRS decisions about their tax accounts and to receive clear explanations of the outcomes.

The Right to Quality Service: Taxpayers have the right to receive prompt, courteous, and professional assistance in their dealings with the IRS, to be spoken to in a way they can easily understand, to receive clear and easily understandable communications from the IRS, and to speak to a supervisor about inadequate service.

The Right to Pay No More than the Correct Amount of Tax: Taxpayers have the right to pay only the amount of tax legally due, including interest and penalties, and to have the IRS apply all tax payments properly.

The Right to Challenge the IRS's Position and Be Heard: Taxpayers have the right to raise objections and provide additional documentation in response to formal IRS actions or proposed actions, to expect that the IRS will consider their timely objections and documentation promptly and fairly, and to receive a response if the IRS does not agree with their position.

The Right to Appeal an IRS Decision in an Independent Forum: Taxpayers are entitled to a fair and impartial administrative appeal of most IRS decisions, including many penalties, and have the right to receive a written response regarding the Office of Appeals' decision. Taxpayers generally have the right to take their cases to court.

The Right to Finality: Taxpayers have the right to know the maximum amount of time they have to challenge the IRS's position as well as the maximum amount of time the IRS has to audit a particular tax year or collect a tax debt. Taxpayers have the right to know when the IRS has finished an audit.

The Right to Privacy: Taxpayers have the right to expect that any IRS inquiry, examination, or enforcement action will comply with the law and be no more intrusive than necessary, and will respect all due process rights, including search and seizure protections and will provide, where applicable, a collection due process hearing.

The Right to Confidentiality: Taxpayers have the right to expect that any information they provide to the IRS will not be disclosed unless authorized by the taxpayer or by law. Taxpayers have the right to expect appropriate action will be taken against employees, return preparers, and others who wrongfully use or disclose taxpayer return information.

The Right to Retain Representation: Taxpayers have the right to retain an authorized representative of their choice to represent them in their dealings with the IRS. Taxpayers have the right to seek assistance from a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic if they cannot afford representation.

The Right to a Fair and Just Tax System: Taxpayers have the right to expect the tax system to consider facts and circumstances that might affect their underlying liabilities, ability to pay, or ability to provide information timely. Taxpayers have the right to receive assistance from the Taxpayer Advocate Service if they are experiencing financial difficulty or if the IRS has not resolved their tax issues properly and timely through its normal channels.

Alas, dear readers, there is a wide gulf between the written word and that which is practiced within the tax circles of power in the United States. One truly need not look much beyond that first article of the bill: The Right to be Informed. Refer back, if you will, to my prior essays within this eclectic site about ‘Letters'. Will there be letters accompanying IRS checks in the future that will explain what the check is for? Will there be IRS letters accompanying billings from the IRS - and if there are going to be letters, will they be cryptic or in user-friendly English? The answers, my friends are blowin' in the wind……you get the picture - there should be changes but will there be…..and when?

Truth be told: were it not for the brutal heat and humidity of an early September afternoon in Hong Kong, yesterday, I probably would not be writing this essay this afternoon in Guangzhou. The civilized thing to do was to take a siesta, an afternoon nap after lunch, yesterday - which is what I did once I realized how ridiculous it would have been to return home to Guangzhou in the afternoon when I could avoid that weather by staying over and departing in time to take the 7:25am through train home. And the civility of boarding that dining room car, this morning, having dumplings and noodles and then stretching out along that roomy bench seat and reading print outs of material that gave me the idea of what to write - sublime!!!

One of the daily internet journals/news wires I read is Asia Times Online. There was an article in the 4 September 2014 edition taken from Radio Free Asia about the intense competition for school places that has kept home prices very, very high in sections of cities in China. This is absolutely nothing new - it is universal for those who have the necessary funds to secure a better school district address for their children. It is a fortuitous thing for us that our real estate in Guangzhou is part of a development with schools that have progressed so far, academically, that our dwelling is in demand. I hope it will be when we are eventually ready to sell - we like where we live and are content to be there for quite some time to come but eventually, we'll sell - everyone eventually does. By that time will the PRC capital gains tax be uniform throughout China? Will there be a property tax, as well?

Yes, the opportunity to have the incentive to earn enough to buy the better things (including schools that are acceptable to Tiger Mothers) needs to be there for society to advance, economically, but the equity of a property tax based upon market value, and distributed for more educational equality is something that is going to make the books, records, laws in China at some point in the future. How this tax will develop is open to conjecture - there is a property tax of sorts in Shanghai and Chongqing. The respective municipal taxes (they are not similar) are more an excise tax on luxury living that really do not control the price fluctuations they were set up to control than anything else. The property tax in China?

There'll be more cities experimenting with more Chinese property taxes in the future but it is only when these experiments change the nature of the beast from a market stabilizer to a way to raise the funds necessary to cover government obligations that the central government cannot fund that a Chinese property tax will truly become a reality in China. Let me state with assurance, though, that it will develop with definite Chinese cultural traits that will make it different from a western style property tax. Just what will these traits be like? Ask me a half century from now!