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Washington says 'IRS: audit thyself'
September 10, 1996
Web posted at: 6:50 p.m. EDTFrom Correspondent Charles Bierbauer
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- You may not want to worry about the tax collector until next April, when taxes are due.
But Washington is wondering right now what to do about the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Both a Senate committee and a bipartisan commission began hearings Tuesday.
The problem at the IRS seems to be in living up to the last word of its name: service.
"I've had this problem going on for nearly six years," says taxpayer Catherine Smith. "I can't get a straight answer."
Smith's problem is with the IRS.
"I call them, I wait on the phone on hold for an hour, someone comes on, I get one answer ... I get threats, liens against our house. I call back. I get a different answer."
Washington says it's aware of the problem.
"Today, the American people view the IRS with less confidence than they do the CIA," said Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Nebraska.
Kerrey heads a one-year study commission, but he is not out to bash the IRS, and even said the U.S. does a better job collecting taxes than most countries.
"They're trying to get compliance up," Kerrey said. (6 sec./136K AIFF or WAV sound)
GAO says IRS wasted billions
But a General Accounting Office (GAO) study said the IRS wasted billions of dollars on a modernization program. The study concluded the program was poorly planned and managed.
Meanwhile, customer satisfaction is at an all-time low.
"My husband and I have received bills on the same day with his social security number on one, mine on the other," says Smith, the unhappy taxpayer. "Different bills, different explanations. It was a joint return."
She has a lot of potential for finding sympathy out there among her fellow taxpayers.
Taxpayers "do have to fear the IRS, not because it's evil necessarily, but just simply because the tax code is so complicated," said David Keating of the National Taxpayers Union.
Enter -- stage right -- two candidates' promises.
"I pledge to you tonight that as your president, we will get rid of the IRS and the tax code and replace them with a fair, paper-less, modern system," says independent candidate Ross Perot, in a television infomercial.
Republican candidate Bob Dole wants to cut tax rates 15 percent, and the IRS by 30 percent.
"Today the IRS is twice as big as the CIA, five times as big as the FBI," Dole said in a recent speech.
The IRS has some 114,000 employees and a budget of more than $7.5 billion. It receives more than 200 million individual and business returns a year, and audits two million of those.
But one former IRS commissioner said the IRS cannot measure success by the number of audits.
The problem lies in the inability of the average taxpayer, those who want to pay taxes honestly, to get the service they need to do so, he said.
Related stories:
- Bill would allow taxpayers to sue the IRS - July 13, 1996
- CNNfn: Congress gives IRS taste of their own medicine - June 25, 1996
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