IRS budget should be restored.

• Position: Tax Executives Institute IRS Administrative Affairs Committee

On July 1, 1996, Tax Executives Institute submitted the following comments to the Senate Committee on Appropriations concerning the Internal Revenue Service's budget for fiscal year 1997. (A similar letter was sent to the House Appropriations Committee during that committee's deliberations on the budget.) TEI's comments were prepared under the aegis of the Institute's IRS Administrative Affairs Committee, whose chair is Robert L. Ashby of Northern Telecom Inc.

As President of Tax Executives Institute, I am writing to express the Institute's serious concerns about the decision of the House Appropriations Committee to significantly reduce the fiscal 1997 budget for the Internal Revenue Service, and to urge the Senate to restore the cut funds. TEI is the professional association of in-house tax professionals, with our 5,000 members representing the largest 2,700 companies in North America. Our members deal with the IRS on a daily basis, and although they are frequently involved in tax disputes with the agency, they are committed to maintaining a tax system that works and appreciate that this is a goal that the IRS shares. Regrettably, the House Appropriations Committee's decision last month to cut the IRS's budget imperils the agency's ability to attain this common goal. Unless the cut funds are restored, the loser will likely be the Nation as a whole.

"Maintaining a tax system that works" requires not only effective congressional oversight and an insistence on agency accountability, but also the commitment of adequate funds to get the job done. Even though no one likes to pay taxes, the orderly collection of taxes and the efficient administration of the tax system are in the best interest of the entire country. What is not needed is an unseemly and undeserved vendetta against the agency charged with enforcing the tax laws Congress enacts. To be sure, there are flaws in the current system, and there are design and management problems that must addressed. But we believe it is both shortsighted and foolhardy to hamstring the IRS's ability to correct those flaws and perform its core functions by cutting essential programs. Quite candidly, we also question the propriety of the House Appropriations Committee's including substantive tax measures in the budget, most particularly the proscription on the IRS's involvement in "the development of tax policy issues."

Finally, we must express our deep regret over the savage "IRS bashing" that has...