IRS Taking On Crisis As Well As Taxes

LIANE HANSEN, host:

The Internal Revenue Service has always been a source of consternation for many Americans, but in tough economic times like these, the anger seems more strident. Anti-tax forces have called for the abolition of the agency. One man took out his rage by flying his small plane into an IRS building, killing himself and one employee.

Douglas Shulman is the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. He's in the studio to talk about those incidents and other issues facing the agency. Welcome to the program.

Mr. DOUGLAS SHULMAN (Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service): Thank you, Liane.

HANSEN: Lots of U.S. households are in deep financial trouble. They're barely hanging on to their homes. During these hard economic times, is the IRS going easier on people to help them stay in their homes?

Mr. SHULMAN: We've taken a number of steps to try to make sure that if people are having a tough time that we'll work with them. Let me give you a couple of examples.

Last year, about a year ago, we announced that we were giving our frontline collection people - the people who give you a call or write you a letter when you owe taxes - we were giving them more flexibility to allow people to miss a payment, giving them more flexibility to settle a tax debt with people, or put people in the back of the queue and give them six months or a year to get their economic situation in order.

Just this month, I announced that we have a program which we call the offering compromise program, where you can settle your debt with the IRS for less than what you owe if you really can't pay. We also announced we're going to have about a thousand open houses on Saturdays across the country, where people can come in if they have a dispute with us, or if they owe money and want to work out a payment plan or a settlement, the people onsite will be empowered to work through issues with taxpayers.

HANSEN: I want to ask you about the growing Tea Party movement because it's stirring up a lot of anti-tax feeling. But the United States, we depend on people tallying their own taxes. Is the Tea Party movement, do you think, making it harder to get people to comply with the rules for self-reporting?

Mr. SHULMAN: I think the American people have a healthy respect for the tax system. They understand that this country has an incredible amount of benefits, ranging from freedom to a great defense system, to environmental protection to parks, on down the line. We dont have any evidence, really, over time that any particular political movement affects people's compliant rates.

HANSEN: I want to talk about the incident in Texas in February, when a pilot, who was ultimately described as a domestic terrorist by some and a hero by others, crashed his plane into the IRS Building and some people cheered. Is the IRS doing more to protect its employees from attack?

Mr. SHULMAN: I take protection of our employees incredibly seriously. And it really sickens me that somebody who obviously had a set of issues decided to take out their rage against our agency, ultimately killing one of our employees. It was an incredibly sad day in the history of the IRS.

I would also tell you, I think it's important for the American people to know that the men and women of the IRS - the 100,000 men and women are really incredibly dedicated public servants. Well over half of them are trying to get people a faster refund or working with elderly citizens, helping them work out their tax returns at one of our assistance centers or trying to get people the Earned Income Tax Credit.

And so, part of my job is to make sure people put a face on the IRS. They dont view it as the enemy. If people dont like the tax system they can elect new leaders. And the men and women of the IRS are just trying to do their job.

HANSEN: Douglas Shulman is the IRS commissioner. Thank you so much for coming in.

Mr. SHULMAN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.