President Approves IRS Funding, Expects Better Service

Posted by accountingweb on Nov 15 2001 93 printer friendly

It looks like our tax collectors will be with us for another year. President Bush signed the legislation that provides funding for the Treasury Department and the IRS for fiscal year 2002. The law provides $15 billion for the Treasury and $9.44 billion for the IRS.

A special allocation of $500,000 has been set aside from the IRS funding to pay for bimonthly reviews of the IRS's nationwide service centers, which were found to provide taxpayers with incorrect answers last year 72% of the time.

Senator Byron Dorgan, D-ND, is responsible for adding the bimonthly reviews to the legislation after reading a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration describing the poor service by the IRS. "If the Internal Revenue Service can't do it, how on earth can you expect the American people to comply with their tax responsibilities?" Senator Dorgan said in remarks to the Senate.

Voice of the Editor

Even though any accounting auditor would tell you it seems like there are an awful lot of tax accountants out there, surely one-third of the country isn't made up of tax preparers, so it's rather startling news to learn that one-third of Americans like to do their taxes. Who knew?

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