And as you know want that is something that 501 c 3 s already possess. All of the measures that i just mentioned are included in the taxpayer bill of rights. And i hope that we can count on your cooperation on these measures and others that the committee might consider to restore the credibility and integrity of your agency. I say all that, ask those questions. But to the degree you can comment on those, commissioner and then if you can cant, well certainly welcome that for the record. Well, id be delighted to give you a more detailed answer for the record. When you note the changes on our own, those are the changes in response to the bipartisan report as well as recommendations in the majority and minority report. These are not ideas that we have by ourselves. Weve said well take all of the recommendations that we have control over. The ones necessary to make sure that the delays dont happen again. Were going everything you asked us to do. With regard to the bill of rights, as you not
Are protected. I hope this e which can count on the support of you and other high officials at the treasury. And with that what i would like to do is get you views on a few of what i think are the common sense proposals that senator grassley and i have in our legislation to make the irs accountable to the american taxpayers. Im going to read through these and ask you to hold off on commenting. But i want to get the questions in. The first one is that last year the irs proposed its own taxpayer bill of rights. If question is would you support legislation to codify the rights and make it the duty of the commissioner to ensure that irs employees are familiar with the rights. Second is the ten deadly sins created by the irs Restructuring Commission in 198 9 8 requires mandatory termination of an employee who threatens to audit a taxpayer for monetary gain. Would you support this . Number three, in your recent letter to the committee you state that the irs failure to preserve electronic rec
Distinguished cochairman, senator wyden for his opening remarks. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. In early august, the finance committee released the final report on the bipartisan inquiry we undertook to examine the irs processing of applications for tax exempt status. Our investigation looked back at the period between 2010 and 2013. The committee reviewed 1. 5 million pages of emails and documents and conducted interviews with more than 30 irs officials. The finance Committee Inquiry colleagues was the only bipartisan inquiry on either side of capitol hill. What we found on a bipartisan basis was alarming bureaucratic dysfunction. Many applicants for tax exempt status were treated badly. For example, between 2010 and late 2011 a total of 290 applications for tax exempt status had been set aside for review. Only two applications had been resolved successfully. Not 200. Two. That was unacceptable mismanagement. The investigation, however, did not find any evidence of criminal wrongd
Proposal to restrict the free speech of certain groups of americans by rewriting 56yearold rules governing the activity of 501c4 social welfare organizations. The irs subsequently went through them after widespread bipartisan opposition. I know we disagree on the need for changes to the rules governing c4 organizations and i know that youve committed that no new rules will take effect before 2017. But this leaves open the possibility that the irs will make proposals this year or next year creating confusion and uncertainty regarding the free speech of certain groups and their ability to engage in 7 00 activities like nonpartisan Voter Registration or candidate forums. Can you tell the committee whether any new proposals will be released before 2017 . And if so, when you expect that to happen . We are as i noted following up on a recommendation of the Inspector General who said that the facts and circumstances standard which has been used for the last years is confusing and was part of
Fully cooperating with this committee in the regulation of paid tax return preparers . Im happy to commit to both of those positions. We fully intend to use the 230 regulatory framework. In fact, if we were given the authority to require minimum qualifications for prepares, we would run it the same way we set up the program in 2010, which was under section 230, the regulation 230, so we have no intention of expanding that or changing it. The legislation youre talking about would simply make clear we have the authority to run the program as it was originally set up so there will be no surprises. People will no exactly what it looks like because thats what we did for almost a year. Thank you, senator wyden. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I appreciate you pointing out this question of the tax preparers because this is another area you and i have worked on in a bipartisan fashion with all our colleagues. On the question of 501 c4 rules because this is an area where theres been spirited