Grassley Plans Amendments to IRS Restructuring Bill


Jill Kozeny

202/224-1308


Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa announced that he will offer several amendments this week to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) restructuring proposal under review by the Senate Finance Committee.

Grassley said his amendments aim at further strengthening the proposal put forward last week by Chairman William Roth of Delaware. The Grassley amendments are as follows:

  • An amendment to require the IRS to exhaust all payment options, including an installment agreement, before seizing a business or principal residence.
  • An amendment to require the IRS official, following a phone conversation, to provide the advice in written form if requested by the taxpayer.
  • An amendment to: 1) add to the specific responsibilities of the Board that it must ensure appropriate financial audits of the IRS and expand the Board's 6103 authority to also include broad oversight powers over law enforcement; 2) increase the travel expenses of Board members to include visits to District and other IRS offices; 3) require that the IRS Commissioner be appointed "on the basis of demonstrated ability in management and specify that the Commissioner can be reappointed for subsequent terms; and, 4) specify that the Taxpayer Advocate have experience representing individual taxpayers or taxpayer rights and require the Local Taxpayer Advocate to have a mailing address or post office box separate from the IRS office.

Grassley also said that intends to offer three committee amendments with Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska.

  • The first amendment Grassley will offer would add a representative of the employees union to the IRS Oversight Board, as recommended by the National Commission on Restructuring the IRS.
  • The second of these amendments would deal with the conflicts of interests concerns related to the employee organization representative on the IRS Oversight Board.
  • The third Grassley/Kerrey amendment would authorize state tax agencies to participate in the existing federal program of refund offsets. This provision raises $12 million over five years. It is supported by the National Governors Association.

Finally, Grassley said he would introduce an amendment with Sen. Connie Mack of Florida to require the Department of Treasury inspector general responsible for IRS oversight to implement a program to audit, through a random selection process, the Section 6103 and law enforcement determinations of IRS employees.

Grassley said the intent of the amendment he will offer with Mack is to help ensure that claims of Section 6103 confidentiality are being asserted to protect the privacy rights of taxpayers, rather than to cover-up information that might be embarrassing to the IRS. The amendment would require the inspector general to conduct audits of Section 6103 determinations. It would require the inspector general to implement, within six months of enactment, an audit process by which no fewer than one percent of the estimated total number of Section 6103 determinations to be audited selected on a random basis. The amendment would require the inspector general to report any findings of improper assertion of Section 6103 confidentiality to the Oversight Board, in an manner consistent with section 6103 authority given under this bill.

Grassley has been a proponent for dramatic reform of the IRS. Beginning in 1996, Grassley was one of four members of Congress to serve on the National Commission on Restructuring the IRS. This bipartisan panel conducted a year-long audit of the IRS. Last summer, Grassley and the commission chairman, Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, introduced an IRS reform bill based on their findings. Their proposal was the foundation for the restructuring bill scheduled to be before the committee this week.

Grassley advanced many of the provisions which were adopted by Roth in his mark. Grassley presented his initiatives earlier this month when he introduced his Taxpayer Bill of Rights III and when he presented extensive and specific proposals in a written appeal to the Finance Committee chairman. Others were provisions for which Grassley won the chairman's approval in negotiations as a senior member of the Finance Committee.

Grassley also is a member of the Senate subcommittee charged with IRS oversight. He was the co-author in 1988 of the first-ever Taxpayer Bill of Rights and its sequel -- known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights II or T2 -- in 1996. Last year, he successfully urged President Bill Clinton to select an IRS commissioner with extensive experience in managing a large-scale business organization. This broke a long-standing tradition whereby tax lawyers had been in charge of the IRS.