IRS HIRING 500 AGENTS, OFFICERS.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

Leery of would-be scofflaws, cheats and evaders, the Internal Revenue Service announced Thursday that it will hire 500 new agents and officers.

According to the agency, 17 percent of taxpayers think it's OK to fib on their returns, up from 11 percent four years ago. As such, the IRS is looking to bring on 30 new agents and five new officers in the Los Angeles area to add to its current staff of around 500 to ensure that fuzzy math doesn't make its way into tax payments.

The agents will handle the auditing, combing 1040s to ensure that people aren't deducting their dancing lessons for medical reasons or fudging their incomes. The officers take those audits and convince shirkers to pay up.

``They usually don't show up on your doorstep unless we've been working with you for a very long time,'' said Victor Omelczenko, an IRS spokesman in Los Angeles. ``The full force of the law can be applied to tax evaders - you could wind up in jail if you don't pay.''

To fill the jobs, which pay starting salaries between $33,071 and $58,903, the agency hopes to attract college graduates with accounting degrees and professionals with tax preparation experience. Hiring in the Los Angeles area will continue until Sept. 13, with jobs beginning in January 2005. Applications are available at http://jobs.irs.gov/careerconnector.

Though normally suspicious of expansion of government programs, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association cheered the move. Kris Vosburgh, the group's executive director, said while his group dislikes taxes, it applauds efforts to collect those legally levied.

``If the government has to take steps to make sure people pay, we can understand that,'' he said before adding with a wry chuckle, ``Of all the ways the government finds to waste our money, this probably is a pretty small portion.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com