Have IRS audits become political

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 7, 1997 | by David Wagner

How can citizens get to the bottom of such charges? The 105th Congress is likely to feature a Senate investigation of the IRS. Senate Finance Committee Chairman William Roth of Delaware, backed by ranking minority member Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, is planning an inquiry that will "delve deeply and comprehensively into serious allegations of taxpayer abuse by the IRS," according to the committee.

Roth's request for funds for such an investigation is under consideration by the Senate Rules Committee. Chris Schunk, a committee auditor, tells Insight that members hope to pay for this and other investigations out of a "special reserve fund" approved in SR54, which allocates the Senate's share of the 1997 legislative-branch appropriation. Senate committees, says Schunk, have a March-to-February fiscal year and just now are getting in their final expense reports. When that process is complete, Finance will find out whether it gets the bucks to go after the IRS.