A Special Summary and Forecast Of Federal and State Tax Developments
TAXPAYERS' CHECKS build federal balances, as the IRS rushes deposits.</br></br>The Fresno Service Center alone got 11.5 million checks for $18.3 billion last year; it deposited over $1 billion a day three times. Visitors see how fast the IRS can move: Receipts gleaned from the midnight mail on a weekday will reach the Los Angeles or San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank in 24 hours. The process begins with a mail-sorting machine that picks out unopened envelopes bearing checks by sensing the bank codes printed on the checks; it handles 25,000 envelopes or more an hour.</br></br>Checks get priority processing for crediting to taxpayer accounts and for deposit. To help the federal banks clear them, a machine sorts the checks into five geographic groups. A special unit handles any payment that isn't clear; workers try for two days to reach the taxpayer by phone for an explanation, then deposit the check in an "unidentified" account while the effort to get clarification continues.</br></br>At 8 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, that day's checks are flown to the federal banks for deposit.</br></br>FOR BETTER OR WORSE, these wives must pay for husbands' shortcomings.