Breadcrumb

TIGTA Finds No Violations of Fair Tax Collection Practices By IRS Staff

June 12, 2012

TIGTA - 2012-20 David Barnes David.barnes@tigta.treas.gov TIGTACommunications@tigta.treas.gov (202) 622-3062

TIGTA Finds No Violations of Fair Tax Collection Practices By IRS Staff

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) did not close any cases in Fiscal Year

(FY) 2011 involving abuse or harassment of taxpayers by IRS employees while they attempted

to collect taxes, concludes a report publicly released today by the Treasury Inspector General for

Tax Administration (TIGTA).

According to the report, there were no cases involving Fair Tax Collection Practices (FTCP)

violations for which an IRS employee received administrative disciplinary action in FY 2011,

and no taxpayers received civil damages for an FTCP violation.

The FTCP includes provisions prohibiting the IRS from harassing, oppressing, or abusing any

person in connection with any tax collection activity. When the IRS receives allegations of

misconduct, it assigns an issue code to the case to identify the potential misconduct that needs to

be addressed.

The overall objective of this review was to obtain information on IRS administrative or civil

actions resulting from FTCP violations by IRS employees.

“Our audit work indicates that IRS communications in connection with the collection of unpaid

Federal taxes generally did not violate fair tax collection standards,” said J. Russell George,

Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. “This is significant because the abuse or

harassment of taxpayers by IRS employees while attempting to collect taxes reflects poorly on

the IRS and can have a negative impact on voluntary compliance.”

TIGTA recommended that the IRS clarify the descriptions and explanations of FTCP issue codes

to ensure that potential FTCP violations are coded and worked. In response to the report, the

IRS Human Capital Office issued new guidance expanding the definition for two of the seven

FTCP issue codes.