VIDEO: Smith Supports Bill to Rein in Poor Management Practices at IRS

Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives today in support of H.R. 4885, the IRS Oversight While Eliminating Spending (OWES) Act, to address the track record of poor management at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by subjecting IRS user fees to congressional oversight.



Remarks:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to point out most folks in this room today understand there is an effort underway to pursue tax reform to make our tax code simpler, easier to enforce, and prevent the need to even pass legislation such as the IRS OWES Act.

But until such time, we need legislation like this because it will bring needed transparency to an agency with a proven track record of poor management.

The IRS’s offenses include targeting taxpayers and irresponsibly directing resources away from its core function of taxpayer services, resulting in the abysmal 2015 tax filing season.

This simple bill would subject IRS user fees to congressional oversight by directing them to the Treasury’s general fund and subjecting them to the congressional appropriations process.

In 2014, the IRS only used 44 percent of its user fee account on taxpayer services.

Last year, this number dropped significantly, with the IRS using only 10 percent of its user fee account on taxpayer services.

American taxpayers all over the country felt the pain of that choice last year.

Our tax system depends on voluntary compliance, and poor taxpayer assistance like the IRS provided last year would likely encourage taxpayers to cheat and make it more difficult for taxpayers to comply.

According to a GAO report last year, only 38 percent of callers wanting to speak to an IRS representative were able to reach one.

This is unacceptable from an agency whose core function is revenue collection.

H.R. 4885 will strengthen congressional oversight over the IRS, not by limiting funding but by ensuring the IRS uses its funding for its core functions of revenue collection and taxpayer assistance and not for unrelated purposes which make it harder for taxpayers to comply with an already overly complicated tax code.