The Internal Revenue Service’s new boss has revised the tax-collection agency’s mission: to be kinder, gentler–and tougher.
Saying that cheating has jumped alarmingly since the IRS sacrificed enforcement to make the agency more taxpayer-friendly in the ’90s, new commissioner Mark Everson is heading into his first tax-filing season determined to reverse plunging audit rates, beef up enforcement and scare tax cheats straight.
Honest taxpayers are likely to have more reasons to cheer about such tough talk. IRS audit rates have plunged dramatically the past decade, and Everson says they might not ever rebound to previous levels. Everson also pledges that putting more cops on the beat won’t set back improvements in taxpayer service that earned it a reputation as the “kinder and gentler” IRS.
But the new tone could rattle the IRS’ top targets: wealthy tax cheats, tax-evading corporations and crooked tax preparers.
“You do need that trooper under the bridge every few miles … to deter those folks who would willfully violate the speed limits and to convince others driving lawfully that those who break the law will pay the price,” Everson said. “You can’t let people feel like chumps if their neighbor down the street is getting away with something.”
Critics remain skeptical, however. Audit rates and other enforcement activity have plummeted so low, they say, that the statistics have nowhere to go but up.
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Edited by Patrick Olsen ([email protected]) and alBerto Trevino ([email protected])
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