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Strategies & Market Trends : Income Taxes and Record Keeping ( tax ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Spots who wrote (1069)	5/8/1998 3:57:00 AM
From: Shawn Donahue	Respond to of 5810

Spots, Finally, the Senate is able to pass an IRS reform Bill and even the Democrats and Clinton...know better than to hold it up in an election year, with so many American taxpayers angry with the IRS! Regards, Shawn <<Senate Unanimously Passes IRS Reform Bill>> By TABASSUM ZAKARIA Reuters WASHINGTON (May 7) - The Senate Thursday unanimously approved legislation aimed at shaking up the Internal Revenue Service and making it more responsive to taxpayers. In an election year, lawmakers were eager to put their stamp on a bill to reform the much-criticized tax collection agency. Senators voted 97-0 in favor of the politically popular bill which grew out of Senate hearings on the IRS. Tearful taxpayers and fearful IRS employees testified at those hearings about abusive practices, prompting official IRS apologies and congressional calls for revamping the agency. ''No one believed that the types of abuses that our hearings exposed really went on,'' Senate Finance Committee Chairman William Roth said. But the hearings ''touched a nerve'' and thousands of Americans contacted the committee with claims of mistreatment by the IRS, the Delaware Republican said. Even Democrats who opposed certain provisions voted for the bill, hoping their concerns would be addressed in the next phase. Differences between the Senate and House version, which passed by an overwhelming majority last year, must be worked out before the bill is sent to the president to sign into law. ''I am very pleased that IRS reform took a major step forward today with bipartisan passage of the Senate bill,'' President Clinton said in a statement. ''I urge the House and Senate to act quickly and send me a bill to sign that expands taxpayer rights and moves us forward towards delivering an IRS the American people deserve,'' he said. The Clinton administration initially resisted IRS legislation last year, but turned around to support it amid momentum for reform that was too strong to ignore. The Senate bill strengthens taxpayer rights, for example by shifting the burden of proof onto the IRS in some court cases. It would make ''innocent spouses,'' often divorced women, only responsible for taxes on their individual income and not taxes owed because of activities their spouse had hidden from them. The bill would suspend interest and penalties on unpaid taxes if the IRS did not notify a taxpayer within a year after a return was filed that taxes were due. The agency would be required to notify taxpayers 30 days before filing a lien or seizing property, and be prohibited from seizing homes if unpaid taxes were less than $5,000. The bill would restructure the tax agency, establish an oversight board and give the IRS commissioner power to reorganize operations. It would require firing an employee who falsified or destroyed documents to hide mistakes involving a taxpayer matter, assaulted a taxpayer or another IRS employee, or threatened to conduct an audit for inappropriate reasons. The Senate bill is much broader and costlier than the House version approved last year. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle opposed one of Roth's measures aimed at recouping part of an estimated $18.3 billion loss in revenues over 10 years from the bill. Roth proposed raising about $8 billion by allowing more retirees to roll over money from traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs) into the new Roth IRAs established last year. Taxes would be paid on the money rolled over, resulting in a revenue boost for the government. Daschle called the proposal a ''crazy, half-baked offset'' that would raise revenues for three years, but then result in a loss of income in the second decade after enactment. ''Except for that, this legislation is a major accomplishment that deserves the support on both sides of the aisle,'' the South Dakota Democrat said. Witnesses in recent Senate hearings testified that one IRS agent tried to advance his career by targeting former Senate Republican Leader Howard Baker and other politicians with false accusations. Small business owners testified that the IRS conducted armed raids of their homes and businesses based on flimsy evidence, hurting them financially and emotionally.