The Budget Committee unanimously approved the Bond/Grassley proposal. The Sense of the Senate resolution does not require new spending by the federal government. It would require the IRS to provide notice and obtain court approval for property seizures. And, it would lay the groundwork for penalty reform. Grassley has advocated IRS reform that would require that taxpayer penalties not be assessed until individual taxpayers have received notice from the IRS of potential problems.
An outspoken advocate for taxpayer rights, Grassley also applauded the announcement made today by Vice President Al Gore, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and IRS Commission Charles Rossotti about improvements to be made at the IRS to improve customer service. Grassley called the initiative "a good first step and a positive response by the administration" to the momentum for dramatic reform of the IRS created by the year-long study of the National Commission on Restructuring the IRS; the comprehensive IRS reform bill introduced and advanced last summer by Grassley and Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska; and, the systemic abuse and mistreatment of honest taxpayers by the IRS revealed last fall during oversight hearings of the Senate Finance Committee.
In fact, one of the initiatives announced today was established in 1988, by the first-ever Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which Grassley co-authored with former Sen. David Pryor of Arkansas. The provision prohibits the use of collection quotas to evaluate IRS employees involved in collection activities. Grassley and Pryor worked together again to win passage in 1996 of the sequel to their Taxpayer Bill of Rights, calling it "T2."
Grassley continued this campaign to increase taxpayer rights and expand taxpayer education last week by introducing the Taxpayer Bill of Rights III. Seeking to have the "T3" provisions included in the IRS reform measure now being drafted by Finance Committee Chairman William Roth of Delaware, Grassley said his legislation spells out specific ways to put the word "service" back into the IRS.
Grassley said that his taxpayer rights plan would require trained personnel to be available toll-free, 24 hours-a-day to answer taxpayers' questions. It would require all communications from the IRS to be written in clear, simple language. And, it would require that communications received from the IRS to display the phone numbers and purpose of the local taxpayer advocate, low-income tax clinics and a toll-free number for taxpayers to register misconduct by IRS employees. "It would be another big step in the right direction," Grassley said.
"Restructuring the IRS into a consumer-friendly organization -- by administrative action, comprehensive legislative reform and sustained oversight of the agency by Congress -- should help make tax season more bearable. Taxpayers deserve fair, courteous service," Grassley said. "Furthermore, it would help restore public confidence in the nation's tax-collecting agency."
In 1996 and 1997, Grassley served as one of four members of Congress on the panel that conducted the year-long audit of the IRS. The National Commission on Restructuring the IRS shed light on major structural problems, including those that led to the IRS wasting $4 billion on a failed computer modernization system. The reform proposal introduced last July by Grassley and Kerrey served as the basis for the bill now under construction in the Finance Committee.
In 1997, Grassley repeatedly urged President Bill Clinton to select a new commissioner for the IRS who had experience managing a major business organization, instead of replacing the outgoing commissioner with a tax lawyer, as had been the tradition. Rossotti began as IRS Commissioner last fall, and brought with him extensive experience in business management.
Grassley serves as a senior member of the Finance Committee and as a member of the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight.