Everson Vows to Crack Down On Tax Evasion Schemes

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

20 March 2003

The man tipped to become the next head of the IRS has vowed to crack down on tax evasion during his term in office.

Mark Everson, who is the Presidential choice for the job says he is going to pay particular attention to companies that promote tax avoidance schemes. "Attorneys and accountants should be pillars of our system of taxation, not the architects of its circumvention," he told the Senate Finance Committee earlier in the week.

The IRS has been the subject of criticism over its tax collection record and Finance Committee ranking Democrat Max Baucus recently described the agency's reputation in this area as "troubling".

The former chief of the IRS Charles Rossotti, who recently retired from the post, reported last year that the agency only pursued 25% of tax payers who didn't file a return. This prompted Baucus to comment: "Honest taxpayers should not have to wonder whether the tax collector can keep up with tax cheats."

Once in office, Everson plans to allocate more resources to uncovering complex accounting operations used by firms in order to evade tax. Acknowledging that this is likely to be a tough task Everson observed: "It's very hard to size what's behind the curtain because people are trying to obscure what's behind the curtain." He also pledged to continue updating technology at the IRS, as well as maintaining the reorganisation plans begun under Rossotti.

Everson's background has seen him in a variety of managerial posts in both the private and public sectors. Most recently he ran the White House Office of Management and Budget, though he has also worked in the Immigration and Naturalisation Service, the Justice Department, and in the US Information Agency under the Reagan administration. Prior to this he worked for the now disgraced accounting firm Arthur Anderson, and was an executive at Texan in-flight catering company LSG Sky Chefs.

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