Antiquated IRS IRS May Never Collect Billions of Dollars in Taxes

The IRS says improvements have been slow in coming, due to high employee turnover and a computer system that dates back to the Kennedy administration. (ABCNEWS.com)

By Michele Norris

W A S H I N G T O N, Feb. 29  The IRS has a reputation for aggressive, pay up or be punished tactics. But with billions in uncollected taxes, that reputation may not be well deserved.

[The] IRS continues to have difficulty managing unpaid taxes and refunds, says Gregory Kutz of the General Accounting Office. The difficulty has resulted in burden to taxpayers and has likely cost the federal government billions of dollars.

The GAO predicts that most of the money will never be collected. Lawmakers are not happy. One of the reasons people pay taxes is they think the IRS really follows this stuff, says Rep. Stephen Horn, R-Calif. And now you look at that you wonder who's working over there? Painting a Poor Picture of the IRS In general, the GAO audit paints a picture of an agency in chaos: lax security and shoddy record keeping.

The IRS says improvements have been slow in coming, due to high employee turnover and a computer system that dates back to the Kennedy administration.

Any corporation of this size, not knowing who its customers are, says Lawrence Rogers, the Chief Financial Officer of the Internal Revenue Service, whether theyre credit worthy or notis going to have some loss in collecting its bills.

But with losses in the billions, lawmakers werent buying that explanation. Were going to come to the point, says Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas, where the general public begins to sense that there are a lot of folks that are not paying their fair share.

And thats the point. The tax system in this country depends on the notion that everybody pays their fair share. Lawmakers worry that when the IRS fails to collect billions in outstanding debts, it sends a bad message, leading others to believe that they, too, can get away without paying

taxes.http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/CloserLook/wnt_000229_taxes_feature.html

See IRS elderly computers at

http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002fPe

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 02, 2000