The IRS has a strict, employee non-retaliation policy:
Section 1203 of the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (RRA ’98), created a statutory provision requiring termination of IRS employment for misconduct.
Section 1203(a) provides that the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue shall terminate the employment of any employee of the Internal Revenue Service if there is a final administrative or judicial determination that such employee committed any act or omission described under subsection (b) in the performance of the employee’s official duties.
One of the acts described in subsection (b) is retaliation.
Section 1203 (b)(6) provides that:
Violations of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, Department of Treasury regulations, or policies of the Internal Revenue Service (including the Internal Revenue Manual) for the purpose of retaliating against, or harassing, a taxpayer, taxpayer representative, or other employee of the Internal Revenue Service [is an act or omission requiring termination].
IRM Section 6.751.1.1 addresses administrative disciplinary matters. . . . [T]he penalty for a First Offense for an RRA ‘98 1203 (b)(6) offense is removal.
I have personally filed several complaints against IRS officials for what I considered to be clear violations of this anti-harassment policy.
I do not file these complaints lightly.
In more than 20 years of dealing with IRS officials I have had occasion to file less than a handful of such complaints.
However, as far as I know (the IRS doesn’t inform the complainant about the disposition of the case), the IRS employees who were the subject of the complaints received not so much as a reprimand for their misconduct.
In my opinion, the IRS retaliation policy, while it has fangs on paper, is, in practice, toothless.
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IRS Agents Regularly Tell Taxpayers Not to Hire an Attorney
4 responses so far ↓
1 10 Things the IRS Won’t Tell You (and 5 they will) // Mar 24, 2009 at 2:31 pm
[...] Your attorney isn’t returning my calls – In the real world, business etiquette requires that you return a telephone call within 24 hours of the call. In the world of some IRS’ collection agents, however, failure to return a telephone call within just a few hours may result in the by-pass of a taxpayer’s right to counsel. We have had many cases where we were unable to return a telephone call until the next business day and the IRS collection agent contacted the taxpayer directly. Again, this is a gross violation of taxpayer’s right to counsel and any IRS official violating this right should be terminated under the IRS’s Non-Retaliation (and anti-harassment) Policy. [...]
2 The Tax Lawyer to Petition IRS Commissioner Re: Taxpayer Right to Representation // Mar 28, 2009 at 8:08 am
[...] IRS Has Zero Tolerance Taxpayer Harassment Policy, But is it Enforced? [...]
3 Girls Gone Wild Founder Joe Francis Spanked with $34 Million Tax Lien // Nov 20, 2009 at 9:33 am
[...] [...]
4 IRS Disbars CPA for Relying on Client’s Income and Expense Numbers // Jul 6, 2010 at 7:09 pm
[...] hearing? If the latter is true, does this constitute IRS retaliation which is prohibited by the anti-retaliation [...]
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