Oakland

Is the IRS Nipping at your Heels? Turn to National Tax Attorney to keeping the hounds at bay!

Back in 1997, after having received numerous complaints of an Gestapo like IRS, Congress decided the IRS was in need of being reined in. So, during the month of September, Congress held hearings for three days to determine what had gone wrong and how to fix it. As expected, Congress listened to complaints from several citizens who believed they had been purposefully and unfoundedly targeted by IRS agents. However, what was surprising was the testimony given by Treasury agents themselves, both employed at the time as well as former agents indicating the policy of the IRS management was to focus their attention on middle and lower income citizens to stack the deck on the side of winning cases. That although there was not supposed to be a policy of meeting quotas, quotas did in fact exist. People like Jennifer Long, an agent with the IRS who testified she had witnessed coworkers use egregious tactics, printed nowhere in the Treasury agent’s manuals, to force those unable to hire legal defense to pay taxes unfairly assessed against them. All with the encouragement and blessings of management. During the course of her testimony, Ms. Long further went on to state that the tactics used devastated families and destroyed businesses and that often the payments were obtained through questionable or illegal processes ⁽¹⁾.

IRS experts like Robert Shriebman, a university professor at USC teaching tax law, and Shelly Davis, an IRS historian testified on their discoveries of easily the IRS had the ability to literally shut down businesses and size homes by merely filling out some paperwork and having it signed by a judge. No requirement to give prior notice and no ability for the affected taxpayer to fight the legitimacy of the IRS’ assessment or claim of what was owed. Shelly Davis, also testified to the discovery of catalogues of targeted American taxpayers based on their political views as well as the destruction of evidence by agents via the shredding of documents and thus eliminating any tangible proof of their questionable activities.  

The Commissioner’s report on the hearings was released in the summer of 1997 in which they outlined recommendations for restructuring the IRS. Recommendations that included increasing oversight and methods of managing the IRS, changes in policies concerning taxpayer compliance, customer service and simplifying filing of taxes using electronic tax forms, defining rights for taxpayers and the financial accountability of the IRS.

In subsequent hearings held in the winter of 1998, then Mississippi Senator Trent Lott spoke before the Committee tasked with the reorganization of the IRS. He indicated he was looking forward to reviewing plans for the reorganization of the Internal Revenue Service and his hope that this time there would be more than lip service where what is proposed is not accompanied by a quiet message sent to the IRS agents to continue as they have always done.   He further went on to tell the Finance Committee they needed to end the practice of threats, quotas and intimidation against the American taxpayer. Senator Trent also reminded the Finance Committee that they were not employees of the  President of the United States nor did they work for Congress but for the American taxpayers who no longer trusted they could get fair treatment from the agency of the Treasury. ⁽²⁾

Congress ultimately passed legislation that not only focused on fixing the customer service issues that existed at that time but also established accountability and a system of penalties if the IRS did not follow the new customer service guidelines. The law was called The Restructuring and Reform act of 1998 (RRA98) and its sole purpose was to establish and expand a system of taxpayer’s rights. ⁽³⁾  Under the law IRS employees were mandated to clearly identify themselves when addressing taxpayers and it also established the 90-day notification system. The law specified that the 90-day Notification of Deficiency letters were to include details of who to call in the event a taxpayer disagreed with the assessed taxes and to ensure a taxpayer would have no difficulty contacting someone, the notice was also to include the telephone information for the nearest office of the TAS or the Taxpayer Advocate Service.

Will the Restructured IRS Treat Me Fairly?

As in any situation in life, there are people who do their jobs to the best of their abilities and there are also people who take advantage of their power to intimidate others.  When looking at recent accounts of the IRS, there have plenty of examples where we have seen IRS agents do just that.  For example, after the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act was put into practice in the year 2000 numerous complaints were lodged against agents accusing them of being overzealous and using their power to under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act to seize bank accounts of generally law abiding American citizens and businesses.  When the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act was supposed to be aimed at seizure of funds and assets obtained via illegal activities such as those by drug dealers.

In October 2017 the IRS was put under investigation for allegations of unfair treatment of groups seeking to be exempted from filing. The write up in the NY Times indicated the inspector general found IRS agents were scrutinizing groups known to have liberal ties and political active for almost a decade. ⁽³⁾ Those are the exact same actions that Shelly Davis testified about in the September 1997 restructuring hearing.

Calendar year 2018 will usher in a revised Tax Code. The Tax Code has been touted as a simplified system for filing. While there is no change in the guard, so to speak, as the IRS continue to be the collection agency for the United States Government, the rules are changing. As such, if you are having problems with the IRS, now could be the best time to fix things with the Treasury Department. What won’t change is the ability of the IRS to leverage bank accounts and wages, or their ability to issue liens against or seize property. 

The 2018 Tax Code has changed the tax structuring based on income, if you were on the cusp of a higher tax bracket, you could now find yourself facing more tax than you were prepared to pay. Items that used to be deductible are no longer deductible and if you aren’t aware of the changes in deductibles, you could find yourself called in for an audit or worse in debt and entangled in a dispute with the IRS.

You have an Ace Up Your Sleeve with National Tax Attorney

If you live in Oakland, National Tax Attorney will help you figure it out. We have offices within driving distance to you. All you have to do reach out to us. Our business is all things involving taxes bookkeeping, tax planning and preparation, inheritance planning and we our team of tax attorneys, CPAs and EAs make sure we do it right so you don’t have to worry about your taxes just worry about where to spend the money we save you.  

1. Moore, Thomas H. IRS Nightmares get Senate Hearing in CNN’s AllPolitics. September 24, 1997. http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/09/24/irs.hearing/
2. U.S. Senate Hearing proceedings 105-529.  The Committee on Finance. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1998.
3. Rappeport, Alan. In Targeting Political Groups, I.R.S. Crossed Party Lines. New York Times. October 5, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/politics/irs-targeting-tea-party-liberals-democrats.html

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