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14 Tax Review 1 (1953)

handle is hein.tera/tafoutaxt0016 and id is 1 raw text is: TA X R1E VIE W JANUARY 1953 Vol. XIV, No. 1 Published by The Tax Foundation, Inc., 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, New York 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 a 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Needed: An Independent Tax-Collecting Agency System of Consistent Laws and Regulations Is Required in Fairness to the Taxpayer by HON. CARL T. CURTIS O UR tax laws are like Topsy; they just grew. When wars, emergencies (real and unreal) and spending sprees have made more revenue necessary, taxes have been added and rates have been increased. It is quite logical that the procedures for collecting taxes and the organization of our tax-collecting machinery have not been the best because of the way our tax program has grown. Exa mauon and reorganization are always in order. It is my hope that, in the months and years that lie immediately ahead, that the tax burden upon the American people and upon our system of private enterprise can be substantially reduced, and that such reorganization will be made as will result in a better and fairer system of tax collecting under law. For many months, the American people have been shocked by the revelation of scandals in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and in the Treasury Depart- ment. It is not my purpose at this time to review the cases you have read about and that you have heard about. It is suflicient to say that the wrong- doing and the maladministration were of sufficient magnitude to call not only for a thorough house- cleaning but for a thorough reexamination of our system of tax collecting. It is important to point out that our investigation of the tax scandals shows that the center of the lax- ness, favoritism and corruption was at the top level. High officials in the Bureau of Internal Revenue and in the Treasury Department were responsible, to a Copyright 1953 by The Tax Foundation, Inc. very large degree, for the conditions that were per- mitted to develop. To discharge the incompetent and unfaithful and to punish the guilty is not enough. We must make those changes that are necessary to prevent a re- currence of those scandals not only now, but for the years to come. If the American taxpaying public loses all of its confidence-it has lost a good deal- in the fairness and honesty of those in charge of our tax collections, our very government is in jeopardy. The question of reorganization in this field is something that has not gone without attention in the immediate past. Most of the laws that have been enacted in this field, as well as the internal reorgani- zation carried out by the agencies themselves, have had the purpose of strengthening the political hand of the Treasury Department over the Bureau of In- ternal Revenue. These measures have been designed to make, and did make, the Bureau of Internal Reve- nue more subservient to the Treasury Department and the Secretary. It is my opinion that this has been the wrong approach, that we must now proceed in the opposite direction. I believe that the administrative job of 1

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