IRS "Apology Payments"

Yesterday, I blogged the National Taxpayer Advocate's 2007 Annual Report to Congress.  One of the recommendations is for Congress to authorize "apology payments" to taxpayers:

The National Taxpayer Advocate also recommends that Congress grant the National Taxpayer Advocate the discretionary, nondelegable authority to compensate taxpayers where the action or inaction of the IRS has caused excessive expense or undue burden to the taxpayer, and the taxpayer meets the IRC § 7811 definition of significant hardship. Discretionary payments should be excluded from gross income and range from a minimum of $100 up to a maximum of $1,000, indexed for inflation.

Robert B. Ahdieh (Emory) blogs this recommendation in I'm Sorry ... Sincerely, the IRS:

Even more eye-catching were the report's proposed "Apology Payments," to be doled out by the Advocate's office - in amounts ranging from $100 to $1,000, and up to a collective cap of $1 million - to taxpayers who suffer "excessive expense or undue burden" because of IRS error or delay. Leaving aside the procedural complexities of such a scheme, are there analogous arrangements to be found in other areas of law? (The Times reports that the U.K. and Australia already have such a scheme in their tax code.) Do we do it anywhere else?