IRS SAYS CUTBACKS FORCE LESS SERVICE

During the tax seasons of years past, anyone could walk into the Federal Building in Cape Girardeau any weekday with a question for the taxpayer services representative at the Internal Revenue Service. But this year, the representative only works 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. two days a week, Monday and Tuesday.

IRS officials say the reduction in personal taxpayer services resulted from congressional budget cuts. That statement has drawn criticism from Rep. Bill Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau.

"The IRS is simply misleading the American public through their rhetoric," Emerson said in a statement released last week.

Emerson said Congress did reduce funding to scale back IRS management and audits, but funding for vital tax services during tax time shouldn't have been altered.

The reduction in personal taxpayer service isn't just affecting Cape Girardeau. U.S. Rep. Charles Canady, R-Florida, complained to the appropriations committee March 5 that taxpayers around the country are arriving at IRS offices and finding the doors locked. "Meanwhile, IRS personnel are sitting at their desks, unable to help," he wrote to the committee.

That scenario is being played out in Cape Girardeau.

Barbara Johnson, a taxpayer services representative in the Cape Girardeau office, said she has been helping taxpayers for 15 years. This is the first year she has only worked two days a week during tax season, she said. She worked Monday through Friday during previous tax seasons.

While Johnson stays home three of the five working days a week during this tax season, the remaining dozen members of the IRS staff still report to work. But they lock the doors and don't handle questions from taxpayers who show up at the Federal Building. Several signs posted in the building indicate the two days taxpayers can seek personal help.

What further perplexes Emerson is the spending within the IRS office. According to agency records, the IRS is spending 11 percent more this year on taxpayer services that it did last year. The number of personnel in the Taxpayer Services Division also increased by 3 percent this year.

"Not only are IRS officials being completely disingenuous by claiming 'budget cuts' have caused a reduction in assistance," Emerson said, "it begs the question, 'What are they spending the increased money on?'"

Johnson said she isn't permitted to talk about the Taxpayer Services Division. She directed a Southeast Missourian reporter to talk to a public affairs representative at the IRS office in St. Louis.

Repeated attempts Tuesday and Wednesday to contact a spokesperson at the IRS office in St. Louis were unsuccessful. Repeated attempts to contact a representative on the IRS help line, 1-800-829-1040, also were unsuccessful.

Emerson said a bill expected for a final vote in the next few days further clarifies what the IRS hierarchy is supposed to do with congressionally-approved funding.

"This is another example of the Congress having to pass a law to invoke common sense into an executive branch bureaucracy," he said.