Reuters New Media [ Yahoo | Write Us | Search | Info ] [ Index | News | World | Biz | Tech | Politic | Sport | Scoreboard | Entertain | Health ] _________________________________________________________________ Previous Story: U.S., Japan Face Off on Trade at G7 Meeting Next Story: Clinton Warns He Will Veto Education Bills _________________________________________________________________ Sunday September 21 4:40 AM EDT Senate Panel to Examine IRS Inside Out By Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The Senate Finance Committee is set to present the results of a six-month probe into the Internal Revenue Service which found a quota system that rewarded agents who brought in the cash. The committee, chaired by Delaware Republican Sen. William Roth, will hold three days of hearings next week intended to take a look at the tax collection agency from the inside out. The atmosphere will have a touch of cloak-and-dagger with one panel of IRS agents testifying behind a screen to keep their identities secret, some using voice distorting equipment. Extra metal detectors will be set up outside the hearing room. The committee investigation began in February after being allotted $250,000 for a year to conduct the review. Investigators received about 1,000 telephone calls, letters and e-mails from taxpayers and IRS agents, and four cases will be presented at the hearings Sept. 23-25. "These people have horrendous power, granted by (Congress)...it's legitimate, but that's a big amount of power," a committee source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. "To be able to take a residence on nothing more than a couple of signatures," the source said, referring to the IRS's authority to confiscate cars, homes and other property from people who owe taxes. An IRS spokesman said the agency carried out the law as written by Congress and that if mistakes were made, it tried to correct them. "We hope that these hearings will constitute a fair and open review of how the IRS conducts itself in using the tools that the Congress has given us," the IRS spokesman said. "We deal with millions of taxpayers every year, and in the vast majority of cases taxpayers feel that they are treated courteously and professionally," he added. In contrast, the investigation found many taxpayers complained the IRS did not listen to them and assumed they were guilty and wanted to cheat on their tax returns. The investigation found an apparent quota system in which agents were asked to bring in a certain amount of dollars when they went out to collect taxes, which led to some stretching the truth on what people owed, the committee source said. Agents were rewarded in their careers if they closed a certain number of cases or filed a certain number of levies or liens. That offered incentives for agents to close out the easiest cases which tended to be people with fewer resources to defend themselves, the committee source said. Another "tip of the iceberg" finding was that some agents used falsified credentials so their real names would not be revealed in face-to-face situations. Those types of credentials are only supposed to be used by the Treasury Department's criminal division, the committee source said. "One of the things that Senator Roth has wanted to emphasize is that there are good employees at the IRS," Ginny Flynn, spokeswoman for Roth, said. In fiscal 1996, the IRS received almost 119 million individual tax returns and collected almost $1.4 trillion in taxes. At the end of last year, there were 15,153 revenue agents who conducted examinations and 7,472 revenue officers who did collections. Roth did not want the hearings to be used for political fodder -- "this is not a reflection of the administration, this is a cultural problem," Flynn said. However other Republican lawmakers have been using attention on the IRS to make political points. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee which raises funds, sent letters seeking contributions which said: "...consider this: your tax dollars are paying for seminars that teach IRS agents to treat you like a criminal!" _________________________________________________________________ Earlier Related Stories * Senate Panel to Examine IRS Inside Out - Sat Sep 20 11:36 pm _________________________________________________________________ ________________________ Search News Help _________________________________________________________________ Previous Story: U.S., Japan Face Off on Trade at G7 Meeting Next Story: Clinton Warns He Will Veto Education Bills _________________________________________________________________ [ Index | News | World | Biz | Tech | Politic | Sport | Scoreboard | Entertain | Health ] _________________________________________________________________ Reuters Limited Questions or Comments