IRS Abuses Demand Reform

Another week and another catalog of horror stories about the Internal Revenue Service. The latest hearings held by the Senate Finance Committee added sometimes startling testimony to the tales of abuse related to the panel last fall. The most sensational came from Howard Baker, the former Republican senator from Tennessee, who told the committee that he was one of several targets of an attempted frame-up in 1989 by a rogue IRS supervisor. In testimony corroborated by other IRS agents, Baker said he was an intended victim of fabricated money laundering and bribery charges. One IRS agent who backed up Baker’s testimony, Tommy A. Henderson, further alleged that IRS officials covered up the matter. A criminal investigation clearly is in order.

Baker’s appearance was preceded by a parade of other victims of zealous or vengeful IRS officials. Some described how their homes and businesses had been subjected to drug-bust-like raids by armed agents of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) described these paramilitary activities by the IRS as “government violence directed against citizens.” Others on the committee used the word “fascist” to describe the behavior they heard related.

IRS managers and others described minor punishments given IRS officials caught in serious infractions, blaming a collegial coziness in the service’s higher ranks. This evidence of internal laxity has prompted the new IRS commissioner, Charles O. Rossotti, to appoint William Webster to conduct a sweeping internal investigation. A former federal judge, Webster is highly regarded in Washington for his work in shaking up both the FBI and the CIA.

The latest hearings came as the Senate nears consideration of legislation to restructure the federal taxing agency. Included in that measure is a provision to strengthen the authority of the Treasury’s inspector general over the IRS. Also included is a multipoint taxpayer’s bill of rights, which among other things would catch up with centuries-old common law by shifting the burden of proof in tax disputes to the accuser, the IRS.

Cleaning up the nation’s tax collection agency and restoring public confidence in it is not a partisan issue. The priority for both parties must be to enact effective reforms, including the machinery to bring under control and punish severely those in the IRS who are tempted to abuse their authority and terrorize taxpayers.