The Power to Destroy

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When Senator William V. Roth Jr., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, initiated an oversight investigation of the Internal Revenue Service in 1996, it was the first time in two generations that the agency had been subject to serious review. The proceedings brought to light horror stories of taxpayers subjected to the IRS's unrelenting bureaucracy, stories recounted in the pages of The Power to Destroy. The book also discusses how these hearings led to the passage of the Internal Revenue Service Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, which "brings greater balance to the relationship between the IRS and the taxpayer--offering tools that taxpayers can use to ensure fairness for themselves and tools the Service can use to better police and protect the integrity of its operations." But, as Senator Roth and his executive assistant admit, this can only be the beginning of continued reform.

From Publishers Weekly
One has to admire Roth's dogged investigation of the government agency Americans' love to hate: the IRS. The result of Senate hearings that began in September 1997, this book packs the choicest cases of IRS abuse into one digestible but occasionally repetitious volume. Roth, senior U.S. senator from Delaware, is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; Nixon is his executive assistant. They claim that Roth's investigation uncovered "an agency in crisis, caused by a breakdown in management, a lack of accountability... and a tax code so confusing that even the foremost tax experts are left angry, bewildered, and prone to mistakes." Identifying quotas that, they say, encourage overzealous collection efforts, inequities that render innocent spouses liable for tax-cheating mates and an agency "that is shrouded in more secrecy than the CIA," the authors diagnose the problem. They argue that the growth of what they see as an arrogant, arbitrary and, at times, malicious agency proved possible because it "had largely been left alone by Congress." Their informed analysisAfilled with selected quotations from IRS employees and victimsAhighlights the need for checks and balances, legislative oversight of administrative agencies and controls over unchecked power at every level of government. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Death and taxes may be life's only true immutables, but nearly as certain is Lord Acton's aphorism, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Roth (R-DE), chair of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, and Nixon, his executive assistant, summarize the findings of the recent Senate investigation and hearings on the abuses of the Internal Revenue Service. Their work is intended as a shocking expos? of a government agency that has abused its considerable power, but the story is really just another illustration of how all large organizations ultimately become bureaucracies that spawn a culture of indifference to the very citizens they ostensibly serve. There is unintended irony here: this was a Republican-led investigation of an agency that perverted America's entrepreneurial spirit into bureaucratic autonomy and created nightmares for many private citizens who were unjustly treated. Easy reading that may have broad interest for the general public.AWilliam D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
An expos of the much-feared tax collecting agency, with description of the 1998 reforms and advice for taxpayers included almost as an afterthought. Not that the expos isnt juicy enough reading. More so than any other government agency, the Internal Revenue Service has created a culture of fear among the people it is supposed to serve, and stories about its methods have become part of modern urban legend. Delawares Republican Senator Roth, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and one of the few elected officials with the authority to check up on the IRS, here documents the investigations that led to the passage of the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998. ``What we uncovered, he writes, was an agency in crisis, caused by a breakdown in management, a lack of accountability . . . and a tax code so confusing that even the foremost tax experts are left angry, bewildered, and prone to mistakes.'' In between detailed accounts of individual taxpayers nightmarish experiences, Roth and co-author Nixon, the senators executive assistant and a former speechwriter in the Reagan administration, offer objective assessments of the agency that shed some light on its difficulties. They cite internal memos, audits, and reports analyzing the managerial structure that led to abuses, confusion about procedures, and overreliance on performance goals. As one IRS employee stated, ``How many dollars collected or how many cases closed wasand isthe bottom line.'' The authors provide no comparison with other government organizations, which might have illuminated the role federal bureaucracy plays in this kind of situation. Neither their brief description of reforms already implemented nor the outline of proper taxpayer behavior to avoid audits (or at least survive them) is as comprehensive as their scathing litany of the IRSs sins. Virtually a textbook on mismanagement and its outcomes, this could serve as a handy business primer on how not to run an organization, (First printing of 60,000) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Card catalog description
In 1997 William Roth spearheaded the most extensive tax-collection reform effort in modern history. He initiated an investigation into the IRS and chaired congressional hearings that uncovered horrifying stories of abuses against taxpayers that shocked the nation. The legislation that resulted - the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring Act, which passed the Senate unanimously in May 1998 - has ushered in what The New York Times called "the most sweeping changes in decades to an agency whose very function has long made it the most reviled in government." The Power to Destroy tells the behind-the-scenes story of the congressional investigation of the IRS, the steps that have been taken to curb its abuses of power, and Senator Roth's proposals for far-reaching changes that still need to be made.

From the Back Cover
"We have the conditions necessary for real reform-for restructuring that will change the way the agency interacts with taxpayers, the way the agency treats its own employees, and the way Americans feel about the IRS."-Sen. William V. Roth, Jr. The Internal Revenue Service has powers unrivaled by any agency of our federal government, powers that can irrevocably affect the lives of more than 200 million American taxpayers. Since its founding, the agency's use-and abuse-of these powers has spawned controversy and frequent calls for reform. But for years, the IRS had rebuffed these efforts, openly resisting all attempts to alter the agency's structure or policies and engaging in acts that have intimidated those who sought change. In 1997 William Roth spearheaded the most extensive tax-collection reform effort in modern history. He initiated an investigation into the IRS and chaired congressional hearings that uncovered horrifying stories of abuses against taxpayers that shocked the nation. The legislation that resulted-the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring Act, which passed the Senate unanimously in May 1998-has ushered in what The New York Times called "the most sweeping changes in decades to an agency whose very function has long made it the most reviled in government." The Power to Destroy tells the behind-the-scenes story of the congressional investigation of the IRS, the steps that have been taken to curb its abuses of power, and Senator Roth's proposals for far-reaching changes that still need to be made. Along the way, Roth and Nixon vividly re-create the stories of the victims of the Internal Revenue Service using exclusive interviews with those who have been unjustly audited, foreclosed, prosecuted, and worse. With explosive new investigative material -including unreleased internal surveys from IRS employees across the nation-the authors show how corruption, mismanagement, perverse incentives, and negligence exist inside a culture that is as cloistered as it is powerful. The book concludes with an explanation of what you need to know about your rights under the new tax laws-and what to do if you are audited. Part expos of a government agency gone grievously wrong, part history of a radical and unprecedented reform effort, and part empowering handbook for understanding the new tax laws, The Power to Destroy is a provocative book every taxpaying American needs to read. Shocking Revelations about the IRS in The Power to Destroy: * How the IRS-with a near-absolute authority granted by Congress-plays judge, jury, and executioner, depriving countless taxpayers of basic rights * How the IRS assesses outrageous and arbitrary penalties that convert minor debts and innocent accounting mistakes into insurmountable financial liabilities * How IRS managers in pursuit of goals and quotas drive agency employees to abuse their authority, to seize personal property and shut down small businesses, forcing honest Americans into bankruptcy * How IRS employees, on their own authority and motivated by self-interest, ruin the lives of middle-class taxpayers while absolving large debtors of millions of dollars of outstanding tax liabilities. * How confidential internal surveys and an agency-wide study of the ethics of IRS agents document a culture of corruption, deception, and fear * How the IRS escapes oversight through institutional isolation and personal retaliation against those who have criticized or challenged the agency-including whistleblowers within its own ranks Praise for the Senate Finance Committee's investigations into the IRS:
"Thanks to the Senate Finance Committee, Americans . . . are being shown the darkest side of their federal tax collection system. The stories of maliciousness and malfeasance by Internal Revenue Service agents in pursuit of unpaid taxes should disturb all citizens. The IRS . . .touches more lives more regularly than any other agency of the government. And its touch . . . can devastate individuals and businesses."-The Christian Science Monitor "[The witnesses] told of an IRS that is a virtual police state within a democracy, a Borgia-like fiefdom of tax terror at the heart of the U.S. economy. The IRS . . . is almost never held accountable for its many errors and sins. It is an agency that audits people on a supervisor's whim, frames taxpayers with false claims, seizes property and places liens illegally, and retaliates against anyone it pleases."-Newsweek William V. Roth, Jr. (R-Delaware), chair-man of the Senate Finance Committee, was elected to Congress in 1966. In 1970 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and he is currently in his fifth term. He is widely known as an expert on trade and tax policy, and as co-author, with Jack Kemp, of Ronald Reagan's economic-recovery program. Senator Roth and his wife, Jane, a federal appeals court judge, have two children. William H. Nixon has served as Executive Assistant to Senator Roth since1985. A former Reagan administration speechwriter, he is the author of several novels and has published articles and short stories in such diverse publications as The Wall Street Journal, academic quarterlies, and literary reviews. He and his wife, Tammy, have three children.


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