Sen.: IRS Needs Stronger Reform

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, in a letter late last week to Senate Finance Chairman Roth, contended the Senate should go further than the House on IRS reform - and adopt a bill modeled on a bill he introduced with Sen. Robert Kerrey, D-Neb., and Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.

"The House weakened certain provisions of the bill," Grassley wrote. "We must not let this happen to Senate legislation."

Roth himself has argued for a stronger bill than the House approved last fall, and is "taking very seriously" suggestions coming from committee members, according to his spokeswoman.

However, it is unclear whether the House and the Clinton administration would accept a radically different bill. For example, Grassley contended in his letter that an independent oversight board should be given more independence. But such a board was approved by the House and accepted by the administration only after delicate negotiations.

However, Roth's spokeswoman insisted the Finance chairman is "not thinking of it in terms of what compromises have been made, but in terms of what is best to protect taxpayers' rights."

In his letter, Grassley argued that the Finance Committee's bill should include additional taxpayer rights. For example, he said the IRS should clearly lay out rights and appeals procedures available to taxpayers who receive delinquency letters.

Grassley also wants to strengthen the taxpayer advocate position by requiring a person to have strong experience representing individual, rather than corporate, taxpayers and to impose restrictions on the taxpayer advocate's affiliation with the IRS itself.

In addition, Grassley called for "real, effective and constant oversight," and for IRS employees to be evaluated in terms of their courtesy toward taxpayers - not just in their effectiveness at collecting taxes.

Under pressure from Kerrey and others, Roth and Senate Majority Leader Lott have agreed to move an IRS reform bill to the Senate floor by the end of the month.

However, Roth will not schedule a markup for next week until he is "110 percent comfortable" with the product and that he is not "rushing it," his spokeswoman said.