By: A.J. Cook


Five Steps to End Abuse by IRS Employees.

Ten years ago the Internal Revenue Service promised a Senate Investigating Committee it would solve the taxpayer abuse problem.

Now in Senate hearings, chilling tales of taxpayers unjustly stripped of life savings and driven to bankruptcy and near insanity illustrate the IRS failure to keep its promise.

What does the agency say? Mistakes shouldn't be surprising in a system that collected $1.49 trillion and processed 209 million tax returns annually.

Not a good answer. Workload is no excuse.

Most IRS employees are compassionate, have high moral standards and do a good job collecting taxes. But the few employees who can not -- or will not -- treat citizens who are down on their luck with decency and respect should be penalized and tossed.

What is the IRS doing to curtail misbehavior by its 102,000 employees? Last year it says it took 172 disciplinary actions for abuse by employees, up from 135 the previous year. Of these, thirty-three employees were fired or had their pay or grade reduced, but the remainder got little more than a slap on the wrist. That doesn't seem adequate.

To solve the abuse problem, the IRS plans to call taxpayers "customers," add more phone lines, upgrade computers, increase hours for IRS offices. Cosmetic changes will do little to solve the problem.

The courts can't discipline IRS employees; their hands are tied. Judge Fred Winner expressed frustration at not being able to sanction employees after they abused Colorado taxpayers Edwin and Joan Trautwein. "From the IRS standpoint, it is fortunate that rules applied against taxpayers can't be enforced against incomprehensible government conduct. The IRS should be delighted that the law does not require that their conduct be subjected to the scrutiny applied to just ordinary folk."
But why doesn't it?

The solution requires nothing less than the following:

• Subject abusive employees to the same penalties taxpayers face for not complying with tax rules, such as loss of job, imposition of fines and/or imprisonment. Then tell the world about the punishment. The IRS issues news releases when it catches a high-profile taxpayer cheating. Have the IRS also issue news releases when it catches an employee being abusive. Respect for the law can be fostered only if citizens believe those responsible for enforcing the law are themselves conforming to it.
  
• Reduce the tax code to bare bones. The more complicated the law, the more opportunity for abuse by IRS employees. If a code provision is needed to determine net income, keep it, otherwise cut it out. Considering practical politics, to pass the law, we may need to keep some ingrained provisions such as the deduction for charitable donations. If we do, keep them -- but no others.
  
• Washington politicians must keep hands off the new law. To keep the code trim, require a super-majority vote by Congress, such as three-fifths, to make changes.
  
• After slimming down the code, prune the size of the IRS -- one-half its present size might be adequate. Presently most employees in Washington spend their time drafting new laws, translating the tax code, preparing new tax forms. They won't be needed.
  
• Cut loose from the IRS those collection officers and managers who can't or won't recognize the difference between a deadbeat that refuses to pay taxes and a person temporarily down on his luck. None of the publicized abuse cases would have occurred if the employee and manager had been competent and conscientious. If the IRS doesn't know who to throw out, taxpayers will be glad to identify them.

A.J. Cook is a lawyer and CPA. His tax column appears weekly in numerous newspapers. Why isn't it published in your hometown newspaper? Ask its Business Editor to subscribe.

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Released 11-3-97