IRS Needs Adequate Funding, TEI Tells Congress.

In a June 2, 2000, letter from TEI President Charles W. Shewbridge, III, TEI stated, "If the leaders of the IRS -- including Larry Langdon, a former TEI president, who now serves as Commissioner of the IRS's new Large and Mid-Size Business Division -- are to rebuild the agency's credibility and effectiveness, the agency must be assured that the programs needed to implement its mission will be fully and consistently funded." The IRS has requested funding of $8.841 billion, $769 million more than the final FY 2000 budget.

Referring to a recent General Accounting Office report recommending that Congress deny the IRS the increased funding and delay any new deposits to its technology account, TEI suggested that such action would be short sighted. "If the IRS is to succeed in reinventing itself as a modern, customer-focused agency," TEI stated, "it must have adequate funding for its service initiatives. In addition, it is crucial that the IRS be permitted to update and modernize its technology."

The Institute's comments are reprinted in this issue, beginning on page 241.