Where I Stand -- Hank Greenspun: Message to reform IRS finally heard 25 years later

That was the headline of a front-page editorial written by the Sun's founding publisher, Hank Greenspun. It was published Nov. 21, 1973. As you will read, after the Sun concluded the first of a few phases of its audit of the IRS, our publisher concluded that reform was needed and in his words, "Congress must act, now."

It is 25 years later and, finally, Congress has acted. And, in many respects, this bill, which President Clinton will sign into law, follows the suggestions Hank Greenspun wrote a quarter of a century ago. Nevadans, unfortunately, bore the brunt of the heavy-handed, often illegal actions of the IRS collections agents who were the subject of the Sun's extensive series exposing those tactics.

This new law is in no small measure a tribute to the hard-working dealers, waitresses and others who were subjected to the IRS' bullying without recourse. It is also the result of the tenacity of a lone representative from Nevada who went to Congress years ago to make IRS reform a reality. His name is Harry Reid and now, as Nevada's senior senator, he deserves much of the credit for overhauling the IRS.

Hank Greenspun's editorial follows:

line By Hank Greenspun

"The ultimate question.

"The Sun has concluded the first phase of its audit of the Internal Revenue Service. This investigation started many months ago and resulted in a series of 21 articles, the last of which ran yesterday.

"We're still backlogged with dozens of IRS atrocity stories which will take many more months to research and write, but to what purpose?

"If what we have already presented has not made sufficient impression on the public and congressional leaders that something is seriously wrong with the tax-collecting branch of the government, then everything else we will uncover and write over the coming months will be to little avail.

"Although the IRS hasn't yet left the state of Nevada, we believe our series has achieved some solid accomplishment. We have come up with the first lengthy and comprehensive description of the Internal Revenue Service, its problems and how it abuses the taxpayers.

"We have generated some congressional interest and have been invited tentatively to appear before the Senate Committee on IRS Appropriations.

"The TV media has shown interest in our exposures and representatives of a major television network will be in Las Vegas the end of this month to explore the possibility of doing a documentary.

"We still haven't gotten to the really big story of how the IRS has been used politically, by this administration and others, and also how large political campaign contributors can manipulate this agency. All this takes time and it appears we have generated enough interest to now have help from media more powerful than a small newspaper stuck away in Nevada, far removed from the national seat of power.

"What we have established is that the IRS is an elaborate arm of government operating largely outside the law, if there is any meaning to the Constitution of the United States. Many of its activities violate basic rights and privileges guaranteed the citizen by the Bill of Rights.

"Instead of agents always acting in lawful manner, we have witnessed many cases where IRS employees banded together as 'vigilante groups' to conduct raids and seize property in a lawless manner.

"By way of reforming the IRS, our series indicates that a licensing system should be established for tax preparers so that the public will be protected from unscrupulous or incompetent consultants. And in this way the IRS will no longer have an excuse to harass these people -- as has been done extensively in this state to drive them out of business. Tax preparers do serve a worthwhile purpose and can be of great help to the taxpayer and agency.

"We have also ascertained that many citizens believe they have been victimized and the actions of the IRS warrant such belief, so it is important that a form of 'legal aid' referral service for such victims be established.

"If a half-dozen attorneys and CPA's would volunteer a few hours each week to listen to some of these matters, it would go far toward eliminating the worst of the IRS atrocities.

"In many of the cases we have investigated and documented, 15 minutes of advice from a good tax lawyer would have stopped the IRS cold. It would also give the taxpayer some knowledge of the costs and entanglements in fighting unjust assessments.

"A situation unique to Nevada which needs instant correction is the attitude of the district director in Reno who does not give the one-half million or more citizens of the state the elementary presumption of innocence which every citizen is entitled to under the Constitution. He looks upon all Nevadans as frauds and thieves solely because in some direct or even remote way they are connected with the principal industry of the state, which is tourist- and gaming-oriented.

"We urge the Congress to enact specific laws which, at the very least, would give the taxpayer hauled before the IRS the same basic rights accorded a common criminal arrested by the police.

"The first remedy, suggested by Ralph Nader, would require the IRS to read to citizens a 'taxpayers Bill of Rights,' similar to the Miranda warning police give suspects, when they are picked for audit. This warning would spell out how to appeal IRS assessments and how to report arrogant and malicious IRS employees to their superiors, and tell the taxpayer where he can go for competent legal advice.

"A second Nader proposal we support is establishment of a 'taxpayer's ombudsman,' a government employee outside the IRS, who taxpayers can consult for help with tax problems.

"The 'legal aid referral service' has been recommended to us by a local attorney who does work for the Sun and has checked all the articles of the series. He is a former lawyer with the tax-fraud division of the Department of Justice and has some excellent proposals to save the taxpayer from needless harassment and hardship at the hands of the IRS.

"One of the suggestions should be enacted into law, such as: If the IRS hits a taxpayer with an unjust assessment, say, under $5,000, the taxpayer automatically gets back all legal fees if the agency is taken to court. This would eliminate the millions of nuisance assessments the IRS makes every year simply because they know the taxpayer doesn't have the resources with which to fight.

"One of the most glaring of all destructive operations of the tax-collecting agency and which must be corrected is the outright and high-handed violations of civil liberties. We know of the many allegations of how federal administrations have tried to use the IRS as a secret police and we ourselves have been the victim.

"The vast discretion IRS has over who to audit, the complexity of the tax laws and the vast powers of the collection unit must, somehow, be curtailed.

"This is in the province of the Congress which has created this inordinate superpower and must now call it to account.

"The only way to get everything out in the open, the illegal use of electronic surveillance, super-secret political operations, infiltration, spying, bugging and even lawless raiding of places of business, is to invoke a Senate committee similar to the Watergate group with powers of subpoena to procure evidence of unlawful activities of the IRS.

"Televised hearings are a must to acquaint the citizens of the lawless acts of this agency which has amassed more power than the executive, legislative and judicial combined.

"When any agency of government invades our privacy, diminishes our dignity, robs us of our money and destroys our business, it must be brought to account.

"Congress must act and if this series has done nothing else than alert our lawmakers to the monstrous wrong they have inflicted upon the citizenry, it has served a purpose.

"Congress must act, now."

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