The IRS Mission

[TromboneAl]

I had thought the IRS's mission was to collect taxes, but I learned today (from the front of the tax form) that their mission is to provide top quality service.

The IRS Mission

Provide America's taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and by applying the tax law with integrity and fairness to all.

[Martha]

Why isn't that charming.

[Goonie]

Dang, that just gives me the warm fuzzies all over!!!

[brewer12345]

Somehow its not much of a surprise to learn that they have a mission statement.

[Gumby]

And Willy Sutton was a financial reallocation specialist who strove to efficiently and effectively serve his client's needs.

[ERD50]

Remember though - the IRS doesn't create the tax code, Congress does. It is the IRS's responsibility to implement the code. While the IRS has its problems, I think they get the brunt of the resentment that people have towards doing their taxes. Most of that should be directed to Congress.

IIRC, a few years back, the head of the IRS was complaining about all the problems Congress has created with their complex, counter-intuitive codes. I would expect that the head of the IRS should actually formalize a priority list of changes, but I am not aware that this ever happened.
There was a bi-partisan group that crated a paper on tax reform a few years back, I may have heard Obama reference this paper at some point:

President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform

seemed like a pretty good list to me, if you are talking about making simplification without changing the basic structure .

-ERD50

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 Somehow its not much of a surprise to learn that they have a mission statement.

Cool. Another spot covered. All I need now is "vision statement" and I have a BINGO!

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 Cool. Another spot covered. All I need now is "vision statement" and I have a BINGO!

synergy

-ERD50

[Alan]

I wonder how many tax $ were spent on consultants to come up with the mission statement?

[donheff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl The IRS Mission Provide America's taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and by applying the tax law with integrity and fairness to all.

The part that matters to IRS is "helping them...meet their tax responsibilities." Also known as enforcement.

[freebird5825]

I've seen a lot of razzamatazz Mission Statements over the years , but this takes the cake.
The IRS Mission is, put simply, summed up by this guy to the right.

[saluki9]

[UncleHoney]

Here's some folks the IRS is about to get real cozy with.

UBS closing U.S. clients' offshore accounts - Yahoo! News

[FinanceDude]

My dad told me about 40 years ago what "I.R.S." stood for........."Idiots Requiring Supervision"........")

[retire@40]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl The IRS Mission: Provide America's taxpayers top quality service...

Maybe it was meant in the same definition as a bull services a cow.

[Caroline]

In 2005 I sold a few paltry shares from my employee stock purchase plan. The plan inadvertently sent TWO copies of the report of sale to IRS.

In late 2007, they got around to asking me why I hadn't reported the "extra income."

I've been working on fixing this for the last year. The IRS folks I dealt with were very nice (when I could get them on the phone), but have a SEVERE case of the slows. They have nevertheless expected me to respond immediately whenever new instructions were finally given to me.

I have not been unhappy -- I figure it's par for the course in the modern world -- but "top quality service?"

Not so much.

[youbet]

In Chicago, "helping them understand" is usually associated with baseball bats and knee caps.......