Saturday, January 9, 2016
The IRS Scandal, Day 975
Joe Kristan (Tax Update Blog), Taxpayer Advocate: Koskinen Demoralizes IRS, IRS Breaks Law. Koskinen Replies: Give Me More Money!:
It’s getting bad when the IRS won’t even talk to its own Taxpayer Advocate. Nina Olson, the head of the IRS Taxpayer Advocate office, ripped the state of the IRS and Commissioner Koskinen’s management in a speech to the AICPA annual tax conference yesterday, Tax Analysts reports (my emphasis, $link):
Olson said that IRS Commissioner John Koskinen’s oft-repeated mantra — that instead of doing more with less in budget-constrained times, the agency was going to do less with less — was demoralizing the IRS workforce and further eroding customer service.
“What my local taxpayer advocates are telling me is that they have never seen so much resistance to their own work” from the IRS, Olson said. She recounted the story of a local TAS employee who asked the IRS in October to release a taxpayer’s refund that had been held up since February. “The response that [TAS] got back was . . . ‘We have thousands of these cases; get in line,’” Olson said, adding that it was the first time she’d heard such a response from the IRS in her 15 years at the TAS.
The feeling at the IRS that there are some jobs it won’t do because Congress didn’t provide funding, Olson said, “works its way down to the employees, so that they feel like, ‘Well, I’m going to do just this, and I’ve got so much work that I’m only going to be able to get this done.'” ...
Ms. Olson says the IRS mistreatment of the TAS office has risen to the level of lawbreaking:
Olson also protested that the IRS is refusing to grant her and her staff access to taxpayers’ administrative files unless they sign agreements barring them from sharing any of the files’ information, even with the taxpayer. Olson noted that she is bound by the same privacy laws as other IRS employees and said she is entitled to access under section 6103.
“My position is that the IRS in those instances has violated the law,” Olson said. “And I do not say that lightly.”
You have problems with the IRS breaking the law? Well, to coin a phrase, get in line.
Commissioner Koskinen responded later in a speech to the same group, in which he did what he always does: ask for more money. “Most of Koskinen’s prepared remarks at the conference were a repeat of his concerns about the IRS’s deteriorating budget position.”
But this Commissioner will never get a budget increase out of this Congress. His glib, arrogant and obstructionist response to the Tea Party scandal, full of denials of the existence of information that subsequently surfaced, has destroyed his credibility. There’s no hope that the IRS will get improved funding as long as he is around to spend it.
- The IRS Scandal, Day 974 (Jan. 8, 2016)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 973 (Jan. 7, 2016)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 972 (Jan. 6, 2016)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 971 (Jan. 5, 2016)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 970 (Jan. 4, 2016)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 969 (Jan. 3, 2016)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 968 (Jan. 2, 2016)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 967 (Jan. 1, 2016)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 966 (Dec. 31, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 965 (Dec. 30, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 964 (Dec. 29, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 963 (Dec. 28, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 962 (Dec. 27, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 961 (Dec. 26, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 960 (Dec. 25, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 959 (Dec. 24, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 958 (Dec. 23, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 957 (Dec. 22, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 956 (Dec. 21, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 955 (Dec. 20, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 954 (Dec. 19, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 953 (Dec. 18, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 952 (Dec. 17, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 951 (Dec. 16, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 950 (Dec. 15, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 949 (Dec. 14, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 948 (Dec. 13, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 947 (Dec. 12, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 946 (Dec. 11, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 945 (Dec. 10, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 944 (Dec. 9, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 943 (Dec. 8, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 942 (Dec. 7, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 941 (Dec. 6, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 940 (Dec. 5, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 939 (Dec. 4, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 938 (Dec. 3, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 937 (Dec. 2, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 936 (Dec. 1, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 935 (Nov. 30, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 934 (Nov. 29, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 933 (Nov. 28, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 932 (Nov. 27, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 931 (Nov. 26, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 930 (Nov. 25, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 929 (Nov. 24, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 928 (Nov. 23, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 927 (Nov. 22, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 926 (Nov. 21, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 925 (Nov. 20, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 924 (Nov. 19, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 923 (Nov. 18, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 922 (Nov. 17, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 921 (Nov. 16, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 920 (Nov. 15, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 919 (Nov. 14, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 918 (Nov. 13, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 917 (Nov. 12, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 916 (Nov. 11, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 915 (Nov. 10, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 914 (Nov. 9, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 913 (Nov. 8, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 912 (Nov. 7, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 911 (Nov. 6, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 910 (Nov. 5, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 909 (Nov. 4, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 908 (Nov. 3, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 907 (Nov. 2, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 906 (Nov. 1, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 905 (Oct. 31, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 904 (Oct. 30, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 903 (Oct. 29, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 902 (Oct. 28, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Day 901 (Oct. 27, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 801-900 (July 19, 2015 - Oct. 26, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 701-800 (April 10, 2015 - July 18, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 601-700 (Dec. 31, 2014 - April 9, 2015)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 501-600 (Sept. 22, 2014-Dec. 30, 2014)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 401-500 (June 14, 2014 - Sept. 21,2014)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 301-400 (Mar. 6, 2014 - June 13, 2014)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 201-300 (Nov. 26, 2013 - Mar. 5, 2014)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 101-200 (Aug. 18, 2013 - Nov. 25, 2013)
- The IRS Scandal, Days 1-100 (May 10, 2013 - Aug. 17, 2013)
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/01/the-irs-scandal-day-975.html
Brother Paul, that's an old bit from November you've linked to. Did you mean to do a compare/contrast between what NTA said in November and what wound up in NTA's report to Congress tattling on Commissioner John? At the Cleveland call site level there's been enough attrition where people are burning out and running away to other agencies. It is getting bad unless and until the tax code gets a zero base re-write.
Posted by: Lieutenant Blantyre | Jan 9, 2016 5:25:38 PM