From the Wool-sack

• Publication year: 2002
• Pages: 33
• Citation: Vol. 31 No. 2 Pg. 33

31 Colo.Law. 33 Colorado Lawyer 2002.

2002, March, Pg. 33. From The Wool-Sack

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33

Vol. 31, No. 2, Pg. 33

The Colorado Lawyer
March 2002
Vol. 31, No. 3 [Page 33]

Departments
From The Wool-Sack
From The Wool-Sack
by Christopher R Brauchli

. . . From chimney tax this cell is free,
To such a house who would not tenant be.
Epitaph for Rebecca Bogess (1668)

Chris Brauchli practices law in the firm of Hutchinson Black & Cook LLC in Boulder, Colorado. He can be reached at crbrauchli @attbi.com

Only the most callous would refuse to sympathize with the most beleaguered of all governmental agencies, the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS"). Not only does it suffer for want of affection from those with whom it regularly deals, but it is chronically afflicted with the kinds of problems it would find intolerable in the run-of-the-mill taxpayer

When last I invited my readers' sympathies for that agency's woes (which I did to edify and not to gloat), I explained that part of the agency's problems was attributable to an out-of-date computer system. Shortly before "tax day" in 1997, the IRS announced that it had spent $4 billion on what was described as a modern computer system. The joy that news brought to taxpayers - whose fondest wish is for efficient tax collection - was quickly dispelled by Arthur Gross, an Assistant Commissioner of Internal Revenue. Gross announced that the system did not work in what he called the "real world." The notion that there is someplace called the "real world" and someplace else where the IRS lives will find ready acceptance among readers. Gross said that even though the systems were dysfunctional, the IRS was "wholly dependent on them" to collect the $1.4 trillion that the government needed to function. As a result, said Gross, the system would have to be scrapped. Distressing though that was, I was confident that with that sort of acknowledgment, we could begin to hope for better things from the IRS. Then came the year 2000, and with it, more disappointing news

A report issued by the U.S. General Accounting Office in 2000 disclosed what the report called "pervasive" management flaws. Among those flaws was the practice of hiring folks to collect our taxes who had criminal records including 138 people who had been charged with theft, assault, and weapons violations prior to beginning their employment with the IRS. Those may well...