Cash Bonuses to IRS Attorneys Draw Fire on Capitol Hill

Saturday, July 17, 2004

According to the Washington Post, reports that 95% of top-level IRS attorneys received annual cash bonuses -- some as much as $47,000 -- drew fire on Capitol Hill:

• "Nearly every lawyer at the IRS is getting a big bonus," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). "This raises the question of what you have to do not to get a bonus. . . . The IRS is always rattling its tin cup for more money, yet if the agency did a better job of using the money it has, that would go a long way toward meeting its needs."

• "Ninety-five percent of employees are above average?" scoffed David Burnham, co-founder of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which tracks IRS tax law enforcement. "Isn't that the way Garrison Keillor puts it for Lake Wobegon?"