WASHINGTON -- Taxpayers may envision the Internal Revenue Service as a cross between a hooded executioner and an evil bureaucrat gleefully designing hideously complicated forms.
The government knows that -- especially after Senate hearings last year provided day after day of horror stories. So it hired a man to make the IRS more taxpayer friendly.It's Val Oveson, Utah's former lieutenant governor (1985-93), state auditor (1981-85) and chairman of the State Tax Commission (1993-98).
In the six months he's been the national taxpayer advocate, his office helped solve thousands of years-old "unsolvable" cases and implement several improvements to make the system more friendly. But he says he has plenty of challenges remaining.
A small example of an improvement he pushed: "There is Saturday service in every district this tax season," he said, adding that is something taxpayers obviously wanted but never received until now.
Another: "The telephone service is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- which is brand new this year. So if you want to call the IRS at 3 a.m., there's someone there. In fact, that's probably the best time to call," he says.
Outsiders say he's off to a good start in a difficult job.
"It's one of the toughest jobs in the government because he has more than one boss," said David Keating, counselor to the National Taxpayer's Union, which seeks simpler taxes and fairer treatment of taxpayers.
Indeed, Oveson was appointed by Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin but answers to IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti. At the same time, Congress expects the taxpayer advocate to be independent and be able to criticize Treasury. And Congress has given Oveson power to order the IRS to take certain legal steps to solve certain taxpayer cases.
"So in theory, you can order your boss around -- but your boss can fire you. That is a tight rope to walk," Keating said.
Keating said while Rossotti seems to support Oveson, he worries that Treasury may not. For example, Keating said Treasury didn't give Oveson an attorney that is responsible directly to him. He said that could create internal conflicts, and he awaits to see how Oveson will handle it.
"But he's very impressive. He seems to have the right attitude for the job," Keating said. "And he definitely has the right resume."
The job of national taxpayer advocate had existed for years -- but Congress complained in hearings last year that it was the best-kept secret at the IRS. So it passed laws giving it more independence and power to solve taxpayer problems -- and a mandate to better publicize its services.
Oveson -- the first man outside the IRS to hold the post -- had applied for it after he was approached by a head-hunting firm hired by Commissioner Rossotti. Oveson said his name had been submitted "by a friend in the California state government's revenue department."
Oveson said he has made his top priority "to help taxpayers solve their problems with the IRS," both by solving cases that have languished a long time and by pushing bureaucratic and policy reform to prevent more such cases.
Oveson doesn't handle the run-of-the-mill, everyday sorts of taxpayer problems. He handles those that other IRS offices could not solve through routine procedures -- so they often festered for years and accumulated huge penalties and interest.
His nationwide staff of 2,500 at 79 sites were involved in 240,000 such cases in the last year. Oveson said 70 percent started as "service snafus," where payments were lost or misapplied.
Oveson said his agency tries to pull together people from various IRS offices who have the knowledge and/or power to solve such cases and then spend the time and energy needed to finally resolve them and get them off the books.
"I see many cases a week that percolate up to me," he said. "The 'innocent spouse' cases are the real gut-wrenching ones."
In them, one spouse often signed a joint tax return with a spouse who later turned out to be a crook. "They signed the joint return not knowing what was in it. . . . Then the other spouse splits, and the more responsible spouse gets hit with the whole bill."
He said Congress last year gave the IRS more ability to waive or reduce tax bills in such cases, "and I'm working hard to make sure that it's implemented."
But he said he's fighting years of bureaucratic tradition and training where employees were told to "protect the government's interests, which translates into maximizing revenues."
He said tax reform legislation passed last year "really set the IRS free from that" -- but sometimes it's hard to break old habits.
Oveson is seeking to enhance his work by publicizing his office more, ensuring its phone number (877-777-4778) is in main IRS publications. He said the only problem is too many people are calling his office first for small problems instead of pursuing regular channels as required.
Also to help identify and resolve long-languishing cases, Oveson has held numerous "Problem Solving Days" nationwide where taxpayers are invited through the news media to come into local offices for help or to air concerns they may have.
He said the lessons learned on such days have helped him make some obvious changes that were long-needed.
"The lessons we've gotten out of that include: 1. People love being able to make an appointment -- duh. They love to be able to come at hours other than 8 to 5, Monday to Friday -- duh. And they love to have people there who have the knowledge and the power to make decisions on their account," he said.
"None of those issues surprise us, but we need to take that and work it into our regular program," he said.
Oveson also has the job of reviewing all proposed IRS regulations from a taxpayers' point of view and reporting directly to Rossotti about them -- and talks to him several times a week.
Oveson is also the only person at the IRS who is empowered to talk directly to Congress without first having the parent Treasury Department clear his comments. "My job demands I do that" as he independently provides analysis.
He hasn't been afraid to take on Treasury in that role. He did it when Oveson felt the IRS needed more flexibility to abate (or cut) the penalties and interest of long-standing cases to close them.
"In the past, we would have recommended to Congress to change the law." But he found the laws were fine, but Treasury had written rules from them that were far more restrictive than Congress intended. "So Treasury needs to change the regulation. They could do that tomorrow if they will," and he told Congress that.
Oveson said he is also pushing -- as he works 12 hours a day -- to reduce complexity at all levels and to change the mind-set at the IRS to give equal importance to fairness as to maximizing government revenue.
"The tax reforms passed by Congress last year really set the IRS free from being a slave to 'protecting the government's interest,' " he said. "I'm just trying to get that implemented more consistently across the board."