IRS Commissioner Egger Will Resign in April, Agency Says

Roscoe L. Egger Jr., who led the Internal Revenue Service on a five-year crusade against tax cheats and abusive tax shelters, is resigning as commissioner, the agency announced Friday.

Egger, 65, said he will quit no later than April 30. If he stays until that date, that would get him past the end of another individual tax-return filing season and give him a chance to restore some of the IRS’ credibility that was lost last year when computer foul-ups delayed millions of taxpayer refunds.

Egger, a certified public accountant and tax lawyer, has headed the IRS longer than anyone since World War II. He left the Price Waterhouse accounting firm to head the IRS in March, 1981.

During his tenure, he fought, with only partial success, attempts by the Office of Management and Budget to reduce the IRS operating budget as part of an overall cut in government spending. Egger contended privately that it made no sense to cut the resources of the agency that collected 92% of the government’s revenues and produced $9 for each $1 it spent.

Egger also mobilized the IRS behind efforts to collect some of the $100 billion a year in taxes that is lost through cheating and to halt proliferation of abusive tax shelters--investments designed to produce a tax write-off rather than a profit.

He also targeted illegal tax protesters--those who file incomplete returns or make claims for tax-exempt status that the courts have rejected over and over. In the 12 months that ended last Sept. 30, the IRS assessed $144 million in taxes and penalties against more than 18,000 protesters and penalized 6,660 for filing frivolous returns.

There was no indication what Egger will do after he leaves his IRS post.