IRS auditors, testifying Thursday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on revamping the much criticized agency, described instances of favoritism in tax cases towards wealthy individuals and powerful corporations.
Thursday's session, the third this week in the latest round of hearings on alleged IRS abuses, also sparked protests along partisan lines--as Finance ranking member Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., complained committee Democrats were not given prior notice of today's witnesses or their testimony.
According to the Associated Press, Maureen O'Dwyer, an international auditor with the IRS in New York City, alleged her supervisors interfered and prematurely closed an audit of a large multinational corporation--where she had recommended repayment of $12 million in back taxes. With penalties, this figure could have reached $24 million.
O'Dwyer, one of four auditors appearing before the Senate panel today, said the day after she recommended the back payment, her case was listed on an internal memo of old tax investigations that should be closed immediately.
"My manager, through ambition, incompetence and lack of integrity, gave up a potential tax deficiency which could have brought in as much revenue as $24 million," she said, adding, "I am personally aware of similar cases handled by other managers in the same manner which can verify the above statements."
Midway through her detailed 10-page statement, Moynihan objected to the lack of prior notification regarding today's witnesses, and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., accused the panel's GOP majority of withholding the witnesses' identities in order to maximize the political impact of the hearing.
"This is getting political because our side has no idea what is going on here," Baucus declared.
Finance Chairman William Roth, R-Del., responded that "these hearings are not partisan" and explained the witnesses' identities were withheld because they feared retaliation from the IRS. After Democrats aired their complaints, testimony resumed.
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