The Briefing Room
General Category => Politics/Government => Topic started by: mystery-ak on March 31, 2015, 09:08:36 pm
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http://thehill.com/policy/finance/237510-irs-chief-to-gop-you-cant-get-rid-of-us (http://thehill.com/policy/finance/237510-irs-chief-to-gop-you-cant-get-rid-of-us)
By Bernie Becker - 03/31/15 03:55 PM EDT
The IRS commissioner on Tuesday brushed aside GOP proposals to abolish his agency, insisting the U.S. would have to have a tax collector one way or another.
“You can call them something other than the IRS if that made you feel better,” the agency’s chief, John Koskinen, said after a speech at the National Press Club.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) perhaps has made the most prominent calls to get rid of the IRS, which Republicans have heaped even more criticism upon over the last 22 months because of the agency’s improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups.
Cruz, while launching his presidential bid this month, floated the idea of “a simple flat tax that lets every American fill out his or her taxes on a postcard.”
“Imagine abolishing the IRS,” he added.
Koskinen said Tuesday that, even under the simplest of tax codes, the federal government would need an agency to collect revenue and administer the tax code – something Cruz’s own aides have also admitted.
“Somebody has to collect the money, and then somebody also has to make sure when you fill in the small card, you’re putting in the right numbers,” Koskinen said.
But Koskinen also said he understood why politicians would seek to tap into public anger at the IRS. Conservatives have become increasingly angry at the IRS because of the Tea Party controversy, but Koskinen insisted that an overly complicated tax code spurred much of the anger at his agency.
“I think that’s a lot of what’s behind, you know, ‘get rid of the IRS.’ It’s really ‘get ready of this complicated tax code.’ And to that extent, I think that’s a reasonable goal,” Koskinen said.
Koskinen made his comments after a speech in which he said that the agency was doing its best to put the controversies of the last few years behind it. In addition to the Tea Party investigations, Congress has also rapped the IRS for excessive spending on conferences.
Congressional investigators have accused the central figure in the Tea Party controversy – Lois Lerner, who formerly led the IRS division overseeing tax-exempt groups – of using her personal email account to conduct agency business.
The scrutiny of that sort of practice has only grown in recent weeks, after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged not having an official government account while heading the department. Clinton is expected to announce her own presidential bid in the coming weeks.
Koskinen said Tuesday that the IRS has clear rules barring staffers from using personal accounts for their public work, and that he strictly follows that policy. But the IRS chief also acknowledged that “we have 87,000 people. Does that mean no one is doing it? I can’t guarantee you that. But I can guarantee we’re keeping a close watch on it.”
To illustrate how seriously the IRS took its policy, Koskinen noted that he had sent draft congressional testimony to his home computer for editing early in his tenure.
“Within a couple days, I had a visitor from IT security,” the commissioner said, adding technology staffers quickly got him “a computer and a printer for home from the IRS.”
“I have never, other than sending a couple of pieces of draft testimony to my email account, certainly never discussed IRS business on my own personal account,” he added.
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Uh, the states could collect the money and forward it to the Treasury there douchemonkey.
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Uh, the states could collect the money and forward it to the Treasury there douchemonkey.
Absolutely! And be compensated for their trouble as well!
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“You can call them something other than the IRS if that made you feel better,” the agency’s chief, John Koskinen, said after a speech at the National Press Club.
If my goal was to "feel better" I'd lead off a two mile-long ass-kicking line with that smirking Koskinen as the guest of honor.
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Uh, the states could collect the money and forward it to the Treasury there douchemonkey.
Yeah, right. That worked oh so well under the Articles of Confederation and the requisition system.
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Yeah, right. That worked oh so well under the Articles of Confederation and the requisition system.
Well, that, and someone would still have to collect it from the states. An IRS, in some form, would still have to exist no matter what form of revenue system is being used.
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Well, that, and someone would still have to collect it from the states. An IRS, in some form, would still have to exist no matter what form of revenue system is being used.
Exactly.
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Well, that, and someone would still have to collect it from the states. An IRS, in some form, would still have to exist no matter what form of revenue system is being used.
What's wrong with payments from the states being submitted directly to the U.S. Treasury? I fail to see the need for ANY intervening agency.
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What's wrong with payments from the states being submitted directly to the U.S. Treasury? I fail to see the need for ANY intervening agency.
Yeah, just what we need 50+ different, conflicting interpretations of federal tax law - at least one from each state. It's bad enough with just having the Tax Court, the Court of Claims, and the 11 Circuits, turning interpretation over to overworked, less than competent, state tax departments is simply ridiculous.
Oh, and the requisition system under the articles of confederation worked so very well, didn't they? (Hint, they worked so "well" the central government under the articles was about to shut down for lack of funds at the time of the Constitutional convention).
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Cut his budget again next year and say, "What? I can't hear you..."
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Yeah, just what we need 50+ different, conflicting interpretations of federal tax law - at least one from each state. It's bad enough with just having the Tax Court, the Court of Claims, and the 11 Circuits, turning interpretation over to overworked, less than competent, state tax departments is simply ridiculous.
Oh, and the requisition system under the articles of confederation worked so very well, didn't they? (Hint, they worked so "well" the central government under the articles was about to shut down for lack of funds at the time of the Constitutional convention).
Wrong! One law CLEARLY spelled out!
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/25/text (https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/25/text)
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I worked for an international engineering firm, with computer organizations and hardware, of varying configurations.
The corporate headquarters location had a central computer sciences staff, to service the largest engineering division, and corporate Hq. "coordination, management direction, etc. for offices around the world."
Over many years corporate management sought savings and streamlining, from the IT function, but that seemed an impossible goal. The IT people took the approach that their domain was "too complex technically" for ordinary non-tech types to comprehend, and manage.
Out of sheer frustration, they bundled up the entire computer function, equipment and staff, and sold/transferred it to an outside IT entity.
The former parent corporation would now simply be a customer of the reorganized services. They could invite bids from others.
It worked. Worthy IT staff remained, but old dead wood got the axe. Old paper pushing and bureaucracy, gave way to shorter lines of communicating and making decisions.
Any huge organization becomes an end to itself, and far too much resource is consumed internally, not for outside services.
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Wrong! One law CLEARLY spelled out!
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/25/text (https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/25/text)
You're perfectly free to be wedded to really bad ideas.
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I worked for an international engineering firm, with computer organizations and hardware, of varying configurations.
The corporate headquarters location had a central computer sciences staff, to service the largest engineering division, and corporate Hq. "coordination, management direction, etc. for offices around the world."
Over many years corporate management sought savings and streamlining, from the IT function, but that seemed an impossible goal. The IT people took the approach that their domain was "too complex technically" for ordinary non-tech types to comprehend, and manage.
Out of sheer frustration, they bundled up the entire computer function, equipment and staff, and sold/transferred it to an outside IT entity.
The former parent corporation would now simply be a customer of the reorganized services. They could invite bids from others.
It worked. Worthy IT staff remained, but old dead wood got the axe. Old paper pushing and bureaucracy, gave way to shorter lines of communicating and making decisions.
Any huge organization becomes an end to itself, and far too much resource is consumed internally, not for outside services.
Why not outsource federal tax collection to private debt collectors?
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Why not outsource federal tax collection to private debt collectors?
Either entities outside government (fat chance) or to the states, with the states charging fee for service. That option gives the IRS employees a place to wind up their careers, without so much disruption.
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You're perfectly free to be wedded to really bad ideas.
As you are as well.
I'll stand with the founders who favored taxes on articles of consumption over Karl Marx and Frederick Engels who favored the progressive income tax any day!