Presidential candidates' tax administration proposals raise policy concerns.

On September 24, 1996, Tax Executives Institute released the following position paper on campaign proposals relating to tax administration offered by President Bill Clinton, Senator Bob Dole, and Ross Perot. The position paper, which was approved by the Institute's Executive Committee and signed by TEI President James R. Murray, was prepared following requests from the news media for the Institute's views on the proposals.

Proposals emanating from the major political parties have recently provided much grist for the tax policy mill. The Democratic, Republican, and Reform parties have all surfaced proposals to change not only the Internal Revenue Code's substantive provisions (including Senator Dole's proposed tax rate reduction and President Clinton's proposal to modify the Code's sourcing rules), but also to make major changes in how the tax system is administered. Although Tax Executives Institute is studiously nonpartisan and generally refrains from taking positions on contentious tax policy issues (such as tax rates, the merits of a capital gains differential, and a whole multitude of individual tax provisions), the Institute has analyzed the possible effects of several administrative proposals offered by the major candidates for President. This position paper sets forth TEI's concerns about the feasibility, fairness, and long-term effects of the proposals on sound tax administration.

General Comments

Tax Executives Institute is the principal association of corporate tax executives in North America. TEI is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit membership association that represents approximately 5,000 in-house tax professionals employed by 2,700 of the leading companies in the United States and Canada. The Institute sponsors numerous educational programs for its members and meets frequently with government officials at all levels to discuss tax issues of common concern. TEI is dedicated to the development and effective implementation of sound tax policy, to promoting the uniform and equitable enforcement of the tax laws, and to reducing the cost and burden of administration and compliance to the benefit of taxpayers and government alike. Because of the diversity of our membership, TEI focuses its attention on broad-based administrative issues, such as making the tax system work more efficiently for both taxpayers and the government.

Members of Tax Executives Institute deal with the Internal Revenue Service on a daily basis, and most members work for companies that are under continual audit by the IRS. We know from experience that the tax laws are mind-bogglingly complex, and are convinced that both the tax laws and their administration can be improved. Nevertheless, we have serious reservations about the untempered attacks that many officials and candidates have launched on the IRS. No one likes to pay taxes, but the orderly collection of taxes and the efficient administration of the tax laws are in the best interests of the country. What is not needed is an emotion-laden vendetta against the IRS, an agency charged with...