After hearing the news that two former senior government officials who were both adversaries of President Trump were selected for extremely rare and intense tax audits, employee groups have risen to the rescue of the staff at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
According to a report published by the New York Times on July 6, former FBI Director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe have been nominated for one of the extremely uncommon audits.
Comey and McCabe were both targets of former President Trump, leaving some people to question whether or not their selection may have been purposeful.
Agency officials stated that both were picked randomly, and Commissioner Charles Rettig had no illegal participation in the process.
According to the Times’ account, Rettig has requested that the agency’s watchdog conduct an investigation into the matter.
According to Chad Hooper, the executive director of the Professional Managers Association (PMA), in a statement released on Wednesday, the PMA “is confident that the vast majority of Internal Revenue Service employees uphold their oath to faithfully and impartially serve the American people.”
The PMA represents management officials and non-bargaining unit employees in the federal government as well as within the IRS.
If it is discovered that there was political interference or bias in the selection process, then the association would encourage the IRS to take the necessary action, he said.
However, “much is still unknown,” and the association cautions lawmakers and the media not to undermine public trust in our tax system based on unfounded assumptions or partial information.
According to an article in The Times, the process by which taxpayers are selected for the program of extensive audits known as the National Research Program is kept under wraps.
The Internal Revenue Service is banned by law from discussing specific instances, further insulating from scrutiny the type of audit that was conducted on Mr Comey and Mr McCabe.
Hooper did offer a potential rationalization for the events that were place.
“Statistical evaluations may be performed on the tax returns. According to his statement, “anomalous tax returns are flagged for a possible audit,” and since it was not “surprising” that Comey and McCabe’s tax returns were flagged as such, he did not consider this to be a “surprise.”
Both individuals worked for the federal government for several years and then went on to write best-selling books after leaving that position; hence, “both individuals’ tax returns presumably altered considerably in a short period, making those returns appear anomalous.”
When supervisors at the IRS are informed of an unusual return submitted by a “controversial political person,” they are “stuck between a rock and a hard place,” according to Hooper. In either direction, there is a possibility of an impression of bias.
Tony Reardon, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, was asked for comment on the situation and what it means for the IRS workforce in general.
In response, he stated that “the IRS continues to face major challenges of funding, staffing, and modernization, all of which require the full attention of Congress.”
“They remain focused on the work they are assigned to accomplish [and] the agency’s important missions of providing quality customer service to taxpayers, administering the tax code fully and fairly, and collecting the revenue that funds the government,” Reardon said about the employees of the IRS that are represented by NTEU.
“The revenue that funds the government” is referred to as “the revenue that funds the government.” “Employees of the Internal Revenue Service welcome reviews of systems meant to assure the strong integrity of the IRS, so that lawmakers may confidence grant proper funds to the IRS.”
[citation needed] In addition to this, he reiterates the appeal made by the union to lawmakers to grant a consistent funding increase for the agency so that it may effectively carry out its objectives.
After reading the account in the Times, both the IRS commissioner and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Representative Richard Neal of Massachusetts, a Democrat, has requested that an investigation be opened by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.
In a letter dated July 7, Neal wrote, “I am very concerned about the impact that charges that the Internal Revenue Service has been utilized to seek revenge on political opponents would have on public confidence.”
About President Richard Nixon, he stated, “These claims are reminiscent of another occasion when a president improperly utilized the IRS to target his rivals.” He was referring to the Watergate scandal.
Rep. Kevin Brady, a Republican from Texas and the committee’s ranking member, issued a statement in which he said, “Commissioner Rettig has indicated unequivocally that he has not had any communication with President Trump, and the study audits are statistically generated.”
Brady has also stated that he is in favour of conducting an investigation into allegations of political interference at the agency.
He claims that this would be in line with the precedent that his committee established when it investigated allegations of political targeting by the IRS during the Obama administration.
According to a tweet from the committee, on Thursday, representatives from the House Ways and Means Committee met with Rettig in private to discuss the audits.
According to NPR, he will also hold a meeting with a select number of senators behind closed doors on July 26.
According to a letter that a legislator penned, “Mr Rettig’s term at the IRS has been defined by poor taxpayer services, irresponsible record deletion, and nearly nonexistent inspection of rich tax scofflaws.”
[citation needed] The news that Donald Trump may have utilized the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) when it was under Mr Rettig’s supervision as director as a political tool should be the last straw.
In the past, Pascrell has shown support for removing the commissioner from his position.
According John Koskinen, who was the commissioner of the IRS from December 2013 to November 2017, he told Government Executive that if he were still in that position, he would also request an investigation from the watchdog.
It is necessary to have this conversation, according to Koskinen, because both Comey and McCabe were fired under the Trump administration, and Trump “made no secret of his loathing of them.”
Despite this, Koskinen believes that it “would be virtually impossible to pull this off as a premeditated act.”
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Koskinen also said, “I have a lot of faith in the workforce at the IRS, who are a very devoted people, and they all are reminded through training each year that it is a criminal crime just to look at someone’s return without authority, let alone do something with it.”
Mark Everson, who served as IRS commissioner from May 2003 to 2007 and is now vice chairman at the alliantgroup, a national tax consulting services firm, stated that he would be “stunned if the selection of these two individuals was anything other than random,” but that he still believes a review is necessary to “clear the air.”
He went on to say that during his tenure as commissioner, he had “total faith in the integrity of the research operation,” and his only criticism was that the process was tediously slow since it was so exhaustive.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary for the White House, referred any inquiries regarding the audits to the Internal Revenue Service during a briefing on July 7.
In response to a follow-up question on whether or not the president continues to have faith in IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, she stated that his term will expire in November and “he is the commissioner of the IRS, part of the administration.”
