Good Start in Tax Reform
Taxpayers now have their long-needed “bill of rights,” thanks to a law whose passage by Congress and approval by President Clinton were assured by last fall’s widely publicized hearings on the abuses of overzealous Internal Revenue Service agents. The measure gives taxpayers more than 70 new protections, including easing some penalties on overdue tax assessments, shifting the burden of proof in civil cases from taxpayers to the IRS and requiring judicial approval before the IRS can seize a taxpayer’s home.
The simple decencies are not neglected either: IRS employees are now required to be more polite and responsive. For example, any IRS correspondence not generated by computer must include the name and phone number of an employee whom a taxpayer can contact. To further the goal of a kinder, gentler IRS, the new law also establishes a nine-member board to oversee the general administration of the agency. And to assure that key decision making will not remain in the self-protecting hands of IRS career employees, six of the board’s members will be outsiders.
What the new law does not address is the swelling problem of a tax code that has become increasingly harder to administer as it has steadily grown bulkier and more complex. Congress routinely expresses its horror over how confusing and contradictory the 10,000-page tax law has become, but it seldom reminds voters that every word in the code is based on legislation Congress itself has enacted.
Earlier this year both the House and Senate made a big show of calling for the abolition of the entire code by Dec. 31, 2001, though without so much as a hint about what should take its place. The demand is pointless. Government cannot function without an effective means of raising revenue, including an agency to collect the taxes.
The tax code will remain intact until Congress produces something to replace it. Are Congress and the Clinton administration--or any future administration--ready to agree on and adopt a fair and simplified tax law, one that is not riddled with loopholes inserted to benefit political friends and campaign contributors?
The new IRS reforms are welcome. Now let’s see Congress and the administration get to work on a tax law that is understandable, equitable to all income groups and free from the burden of special-interest favors.
