The Power to Destroy

Examines the history and operations of the IRS and discusses reform efforts

"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.