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Then again on September 26th, 1997 the article in the Blade was,
ACTING IRS COMMISSIONER APOLOGIZES TO TAXPAYERS
WASHINGTON (NYT) The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service
issued an extraordinary public apology yesterday to four individual taxpayers -
and, by extension, to all American taxpayers for the severe mistreatment at the
hands of agency officials.
The tax official, Michael Dolan, promised immediate changes to eliminate
incentives for misconduct and make the IRS more responsive to public
complaints.
At the conclusion of three days of hearings on IRS abuses before the Senate
Finance committee, Dolan said that he was deeply troubled by the charges
leveled against the tax agency this week by taxpayers, current and former IRS
officials, and outside watch dogs.
Yesterday's session featured testimony from five IRS agents and one former
agent, THEIR IDENTITIES CONCEALED BY FABRIC COVERED SCREENS AND THEIR VOICES
ELECTRONICALLY ALTERED. Their testimony included the following allegations.
* Agency workers browse through tax returns to snoop into the finances of
celebrities, relatives, and prospective dates.
* IRS agents are judged by their total tax collections, no matter how poorly
documented.
* Managers cover up abusive behavior by collection agents.
* Revenue officers consider all tax debtors "crooks or flakes" who
deserve no sympathy.
Again on September 27th, 1997 a Blade article’s headline read,
"IRS AUDITS OWN AGENCY ON HANDLING TAXPAYERS."
Then again on September 28th, 1997 an article’s headline was,
"WHISTLE-BLOWER SAYS TAXPAYER RIGHTS ABUSED. AGENCY GOES AFTER CITIZENS
WHO ‘SIMPLY CAN'T FIGHT BACK’."
WASHINGTON (AP) The star of the Senate's IRS inquiry was a Houston woman who
put her career on the line by describing, in vivid terms, something terribly
wrong in the tax collection agency.
"Many agents are encouraged by management to pursue tax assessments
that have no basis in law from individuals who simply can't fight back,"
Jennifer Long told a stunned Senate Finance Committee hearing. "I do feel
taxpayer's rights are being violated".
Then on September 30th, 1997 a Blade article headline read,
"CLINTON REJECTS REVISION OF IRS."
The next article I believe came from the Wall Street Journal. The
reason I say "believe" is that someone left a clipping from a
newspaper on my desk that looked like it come from that paper. The article
said:
IRS WITNESS AUDITED
Just two weeks after Delaware contractor Tom Savage told a Senate hearing
the IRS was trying to demand $50,000.00 that Justice Department lawyers agreed
he doesn't owe, Savage got an audit notice. "They're harassing me,"
The next article comes from, THE OXFORD CLUB. The article read:
GIVE US TAX REVOLUTION, NOT "REFORM"
Dear Member,
In December 1993, U.S. District Court Judge Jack Weinstein of New York said
a much needed "NO" to the Internal Revenue Service. He ruled that
Brooklyn retiree Lawrence McCormick could not be punished with a $500.00 fine
(as the IRS demanded) for filing "a frivolous return."
The alleged frivolity? Mr. McCormick added the words "under
protest" after his signature on his 1992 income tax form. In all other
respects his form 1040 was correct. The court held the First Amendment
guarantees citizens the right to protest taxes, saying: " A taxpayer need
not suffer in silent acquiescence to a perceived injustice."
I hope Citizen McCormick drew satisfaction from the recent U.S. Senate Finance
Committee hearings on IRS abuse of taxpayers. I did.
The senators called the IRS to task, and the tales from the bureaucratic
crypt were lurid. If you've ever had dealings with the IRS, the stories struck
home: agents promoted not on merit, but on total collections squeezed from
taxpayers; clerks snooping freely through files of relatives, prospective dates
and random celebrities; managers covering up blatant abuses; mis-programmed
computers spewing forth false tax dunning notices. In sum, a taxpayer-be-damned
attitude that views us all as crooks or flakes deserving no mercy.
The Senate evidence proved (for all of us to see) IRS insensitivity and
inflexibility--a pervasive pattern of sheer arrogance and malicious misuse of
authority. Over the years, we've given you numerous examples of this cavalier
IRS attitude. But mark my words: although the IRS tax inquisition may slow a
bit under political heat, only drastic, fundamental tax reform will end this
agency's perversion of government power.
After all, IRS tax drones didn't write the 9,451 pages of the Internal
Revenue Code. That feat was accomplished right up there on the same Capitol
Hill where legislators held these gory hearings. A near century's worth, if
"worth" is the correct word, of Congressional politicians stitched
together this tax monstrosity. They handed out the goodies and tax loopholes
galore, spending their merry way to repeated re-election.
It was our present "conservative" Congress that enacted the so
called " Tax Payer Relief Act of 1997." That new law does indeed give
some needed relief. It also adds 285 new sections and 824 amendments to the tax
code. As Oxford Club tax adviser Vernon Jacobs rightly says, Congress
goes right on using the tax system to micro manage our lives. Their tax
gimmicks manipulate us to accept government social objectives and penalize us
if we don't go along. And in our struggle to comply, we're forced to pay for
professional help to get through the paperwork thicket and stay out of jail.
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