Charles Rossoti, IRS Commissioner

A large number of people have already changed the way they're doing business with the IRS, and more and more people understand that everyone's best interest is served when they do their best to ensure compliance with our tax laws and regulations. The tax laws are very complex, and the economy is growing, so people are going to make mistakes. But, more and more people are trying harder to comply, and we want to work with them. There's a small minority, of course, who don't pay, and that's where our enforcement efforts come in. In those cases, the challenge is to enforce the law as effectively as possible. You mention an "ideal world," but that's not the world we live in. And, in regard to both compliance and enforcement, the real challenge now is to do both as effectively and efficiently as possible with the resources we have. And, that's what we're going to do.

Question: Much has been reported about the new "customer friendliness" at the IRS. In fact, one story going around is about a taxpayer who called or stopped in for some help and found the IRS employees to be almost too nice.

He said they wouldn't stop helping him, even when he had everything he wanted and just wanted to end the conversation!

Answer: That's nice. That's a good story! Those are our front-line people! They've had the most positive reaction so far to the changes we're trying to make. It's remarkable. All the big things we want to do, reorganizing, for example, have just been started. But, the emphasis on improved customer service, on assisting the taxpayer in whatever way is possible at any given moment -- our front-line employees have already internalized this "customer service" message without our doing much to reinforce it. And that, as much as anything else, is what's driving change at the IRS and keeping momentum going. That's what's supporting reinvention here: the determination of our front-line Federal employees to make this agency number one at delivering the best service possible to the American taxpayer. They're fantastic, they really are, and they deserve most of the credit for what we are accomplishing.

For more information, visit the IRS Internet site.

3/6/00

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A large number of people have already changed the way they're doing business with the IRS, and more and more people understand that everyone's best interest is served when they do their best to ensure compliance with our tax laws and regulations. The tax laws are very complex, and the economy is growing, so people are going to make mistakes. But, more and more people are trying harder to comply, and we want to work with them. There's a small minority, of course, who don't pay, and that's where our enforcement efforts come in. In those cases, the challenge is to enforce the law as effectively as possible. You mention an "ideal world," but that's not the world we live in. And, in regard to both compliance and enforcement, the real challenge now is to do both as effectively and efficiently as possible with the resources we have. And, that's what we're going to do.

Question: Much has been reported about the new "customer friendliness" at the IRS. In fact, one story going around is about a taxpayer who called or stopped in for some help and found the IRS employees to be almost too nice.