ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 10, 1997 TAG: 9703100113
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ROB WELLS ASSOCIATED PRESS
A new book says IRS `souvenir hunters' ripped the signatures off former presidents' tax returns, and that's just for starters.
The Internal Revenue Service's former historian says the agency mishandles, even destroys, important historical records. Law violations she alleges include the vandalizing of presidential tax returns by IRS employees seeking souvenirs.
A new book by Shelley L. Davis, who resigned in 1995 after seven years as IRS historian, hits the stands as the tax-collecting agency faces, in the words of Commissioner Margaret Milner Richardson, ``unprecedented attacks on the tax system.''
More attacks came Sunday. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., a longtime critic of the IRS, described it as ``the most un-American agency we have in the country, where you walk in guilty and you stay guilty unless you prove you're innocent.''
Appearing on ``Fox News Sunday,'' Tauzin recommended the dissolution of the IRS and a ``great tea party'' to toss out the income tax in favor of a national sales tax.
In a passage of Davis' book, ``Unbridled Power: Inside the Secret Culture of the IRS,'' she describes reviewing tax returns of presidents dating back to Woodrow Wilson, who was in office when the income tax was imposed.
Davis writes that IRS privacy laws prevent her from detailing contents of the tax returns. But, she wrote, ``I can note, to my dismay, that the signature blocks on nearly all the returns had been torn off - where the president had set down his autograph.''
Davis said she brought this vandalism to the attention of an IRS secretary, who ``mumbled something about `souvenir hunting' by former members of the commissioner's office.''
IRS spokesman Frank Keith said he couldn't respond to the allegation because the tax code forbids disclosing information about any taxpayer's return - even the president's. Presidents since Gerald Ford have voluntarily made portions of their tax returns public.
Keith denied charges the agency violates the Federal Records Act in its handling of old IRS files and taxpayer returns.
``The notion the IRS is engaged in wholesale destruction of records is not correct,'' he said.
Davis' allegations formed the basis for a federal lawsuit filed last month by two groups of historians and a newsletter publisher, seeking to force the IRS to obey the Federal Records Act in handling and storing criminal investigation files.
Keith said the criminal files are being preserved until IRS and the National Archives work out an agreement on how historians can review the documents without running afoul of privacy laws.
While Davis' book provides new details about the long-running records dispute, it also provides a breezy and at times gossipy read of IRS' inner workings. To some, it's little more than a chunk of red meat tossed to IRS haters.
``The IRS has a lot of problems, but Shelley Davis and that book ... She's more into character assassination than policy analysis,'' said Robert Tobias, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS workers.
``That book is regurgitated congressional hearings and GAO reports,'' he said. The General Accounting Office is the investigative arm of Congress.
IRS spokesman Keith called the book ``an unfair and inaccurate description of the agency and the 100,000 people who work here and do what is a very difficult job.''
The agency is struggling with a computer modernization program that, by its own admission, has misused or wasted $400 million since 1986. A congressionally appointed panel is examining major restructuring of the agency.
Several longtime IRS observers roll their eyes about some of Davis' more sensational allegations. But in other areas, experts say she's on target.
``There are some core issues there that are a great deal of value to this commission, primarily dealing with record preservation,'' said Jeff Trinca, chief of staff of the National Commission on Restructuring the IRS.
In an interview, Davis conceded she never witnessed document destruction but knew of cases where records went missing and presumably were destroyed without proper review. She recalled digging through trash barrels in IRS hallways to rescue records she thought had historic value.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 linesby CNB