Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Kit Bond (R-MO) have asked the Internal Revenue Service to help farmers who are using a new income averaging law enacted by Congress in 1997.

In a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti, they asked that IRS issue "immediate guidance" to farmers trying to meet a tax deadline about two weeks away.  The senators also urged IRS not to assess penalties to farmers who already have given their best guess on income averaging without the benefit of IRS guidelines.

"The IRS has failed to respond to the needs of farmers, thereby forcing them into a lose-lose situation where they either have to forgo income averaging and pay higher taxes or make an educated guess and expose themselves to penalties if the IRS says they guessed wrong," said Grassley and Bond.  "The IRS should provide the same prompt, accurate information that it expects from every taxpayer."