Imagine a police force in America that can pursue any investigation that it wishes, can demand evidence from you without the permission of a judge or grand jury, can continue its investigation and expand that investigation’s scope as it sees fit, ignores many of your constitutional rights and can ruin you, your family and your livelihood without ever filing one charge against you. Sound scary? Sure, but that can’t happen here can it? Yes, it can and this force has already set up shop in Washington. It’s your friendly neighborhood IRS.
Everyone has heard the horror stories about the IRS – men and women trying to comply with the arcane tax laws and regulations treated like criminals by tax agents; elaborate and unethical stings conducted that border on entrapment of honest citizens, innocent lives and careers destroyed with not even a simple apology for all the trouble. Despite a long history of abuse that would make secret police chiefs around the globe green with envy, some in Washington still contend that the IRS can be reformed, it can be changed, it can be remade to be the better, nicer, kinder IRS. Right. And you can reason with a pit bull while he’s gnawing on your forearm.
The IRS must be abolished – it cannot be reformed or fixed. It is a sick agency that has, at its core, no true concern for the constitutional rights of individual Americans. It can be argued that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was afforded more due process from the police and legal system than most people who go through an audit.
The problem is the people at the IRS. From top to bottom, the IRS is staffed by people who are either politically motivated or mean-spirited and petty who resent any criticism leveled at the IRS. No one likes to pay taxes and April 15th is one of the most hated days in America’s datebook, sort of a Fourth of July with root canals taking the place of fireworks.
Our recently hailed budget deal does little to help remedy the situation. It has more changes than the 1986 tax bill and holds out tax relief to people who must now step back onto the tightrope to reach the tax credits dangled over the IRS pit. And woe to the unlucky taxpayer who slips because, folks, there ain’t no net to catch you. Tax relief should not be a game of dodge ball when the other side is playing with cannons. Real tax relief should begin with two main premises -make paying taxes simpler and less fraught with danger.
Congress should look to create a simpler, flatter and fairer tax system for individuals. Hate a single rate flat tax? Create two levels or maybe even three. Hate loopholes? Eliminate them, but gradually so that families who have planned for their future under one set of rules can start to make the transition to a totally different game. That’s only fair. And get rid of the IRS, as Steve Forbes says, drive a stake through its heart, bury it and hope that it never rises again.
Create a new tax compliance system that must conduct itself along the lines of criminal prosecutions. If the government wants to investigate you for tax evasion, let it get a warrant from a judge. Make the government justify before an impartial judge its reasons for wanting information about you, your family, your job or your life. Make sure that every right that the Constitution gives an accused murderer or thief is also afforded to those people suspected of violating the tax laws. And if that person is found guilty in court, punish them appropriately – but if they’re not, let them go.
Real change can come to our tax system and Congress can move decisively now to make it a reality. The recent Senate hearings were a good start and they struck a chord with the American people. But the tax collectors must be kept under the magnifying glass. A smart senator should take a page from the mid-’70s investigation of alleged abuses by members of the U.S. intelligence community and investigate the ethical swamp land that is the IRS. Pull out all the records, subpoena a hearing room full of IRS leaders, remove the agency’s veil of secrecy and show the nation what happens when their government is allowed to run amok. Not only would it be great theater but every American could make the connection that there but for the grace of God, and my accountant, go I.
Craig Shirley is president of Craig Shirley and Associates, where Robert Geist is senior account executive.
LOAD-DATE: October 15, 1997
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Copyright 1997 The Washington Times LLC All Rights Reserved
