IRS shakeup needed after scandal, chairmen of Congress' tax-writing panels say
The chairmen of congressional tax writing committees say the Internal Revenue Service may need to be restructured after the agency was found improperly targeting conservative groups seeking non-profit status.
The chairmen of congressional tax writing committees say the Internal Revenue Service may need to be restructured after the agency was found improperly targeting conservative groups seeking non-profit status.
The Internal Revenue Service may need to be restructured after the agency was found improperly targeting conservative groups seeking non-profit status, the chairmen of the two congressional tax-writing committees say.
鈥淭here does need to be significant restructuring in the IRS,鈥� said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D) of Montana. 鈥淲ithin the agency itself, there has got to be some major accountability changes and make sure people are held accountable and not just left to go in their own direction,鈥� Senator Baucus said Friday at a Monitor-hosted breakfast for reporters.
Speaking at the same gathering, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Dave Camp (R) of Michigan, said 鈥淚 think there may be鈥� a need for a total revamping of the IRS. 鈥淭his looks like, at best, complete management failure, and at worst, intentional. We don鈥檛 know that yet. ... We really need to know all the facts.鈥�
The chairmen appeared at the event to discuss their joint, bipartisan efforts at reforming the tax code.
Both Baucus and Representative Camp stressed that their joint investigation of the IRS was continuing. The tax committees have a special level of access to IRS data, and Camp said 鈥渨e are beginning to use it.鈥� He described the investigation as 鈥渕ore of a white collar approach where you really have to get the documents and prove things. And that takes a long time, it is painstaking.鈥�
A report by the IRS Inspector General released in May revealed that during the 2010 and 2012 elections an IRS office in Cincinnati had singled out for extended questioning and delays applications for tax exempt status from conservative groups that had political sounding names.
Camp said the tax panels hoped to get IRS documents 鈥渂y the end of this week鈥� that would give a clearer picture of what happened. 鈥淏ut at least in the initial hearings we have had, clearly the management was either intentionally not looking or I would say so out of touch almost rising to the level of wrongdoing.鈥�
Baucus said he had been briefed Thursday on joint interviews the Finance and Ways and Means Committee staffs are holding with IRS employees. 鈥淚 got a report yesterday from my staff basically concluding that hey, there are real problems here.鈥�
Baucus, who has served on the Senate Finance Committee longer than any other person in history, noted that 鈥渋t is tough to manage鈥� all of the IRS鈥檚 90,000 employees scattered around the nation. But he added the IRS 鈥渋s not managed well.鈥�
One of most influential members of the House Republican leadership, Camp said, 鈥淭he IRS is part of the administration and we had been trying for two years to address this issue.鈥� He said 鈥渢he evidence so far鈥� is that donors鈥� were targeted on gift tax issues "because of their聽conservative beliefs." He also said that 鈥淐onservative groups have had confidential IRS tax information leaked鈥� and that 鈥渉undreds of groups鈥� were targeted.
Camp said, 鈥淚 am pretty angry about this and I am not going to stop until I find out what the truth is.鈥�