Dear: [Your Senator]

As your constituent, I am writing to urge you to co-sponsor revised bill S-1321. The plague of the IRS Collections Division is an atrocity on American society of epic proportions.  It is destroying the very fabric of life for mainstream American families and leaches away the fundamental principals by whom we as Americans hold dear, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Other federal institutions such as the Department of Education seem to have provisions for collecting debts that do not destroy the will to live from the debtors and yet exist on an operating budget that is a fraction of the trillion-dollar budget the IRS operates on. Ambitious attempts in the past for IRS reform have fell short of the mark to put the IRS on a short leash. 1996, the federal Taxpayer Bill of Rights, the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, HR 1528, the "Taxpayer Protection and IRS Accountability Act of 2003," to name a few. Currently a bill presented by Senator Rick Santorum of PA, S-1321, introduced 06/28/2005 has 17 Senatorial cosponsors and seems to be the most promising for the complete reform of the IRS that has been escaping lawmakers for over ten years. That combined with agencies created by prior legislation, with good intentions, that no one ever thought to investigate whether they were actually living up to expectations, like Tax Advocates, The Treasury Inspector General and L.I.T.C.’s.

In the spirit of the courageous men and women who fought for what they believed dearest to their heart at the Boston Tea Party 1773, the last great act of defiance against a tyrannical tax enforcer we also ask all who sign this petition to join us in a mass protest against the IRS by withholding the filing of their 2007 return to be post marked no earlier than April 14, 2008. To let them know who butter’s their bread.

We the undersigned recommend the following provisions to be incorporated into Senate Bill S-1321.

Eliminate all criminal penalties potential or otherwise of any kind for simple mistakes that result in tax liabilities for the statutory period for individuals and married couples filing jointly or individually, with an annual reported income of $150, 000.00 a year or less. Extreme measures are customarily required for creditors to pursue debtors in ordinary life, and impose the most severe sanctions such as filing suit to recover losses. The IRS conversely is empowered to employ Gestapo tactics with forced collection immediately after notice is served, even in the midst of good faith attempts at compliance where in ordinary life delinquent accounts are always frozen from acts of forced collection activity issued frivolously, some of which like tax liens take 20 years or more to recover from and are many times issued unnecessarily or prematurely.

1. For the infraction of filing late or neglecting to pay past tax liabilities a simple tariff of 3% not to exceed $100.00 for a tax year and in the case of multiple years not to exceed $200.00. Accordingly removals of all ridiculous add on penalties that serve only to make a bad situation worse by compounding it. Given the current policy, tax liabilities can double in a little over a year of delinquency. One penalty can be imposed for merely failing to respond to the IRS quickly enough. At any rate to place this issue in the appropriate category as a traffic violation or less rather than criminal activity warranting severe sentences. In the IRS Regime you are guilty, tried and convicted leaving them to execute your sentence; at their discretion until you by sheer luck breach the gauntlet of legal obstacles including their self serving Federal Judges, which preside over and enforce taxpayer abuse laws. We believe the burden of proof should rest with the IRS and that individuals suspect of tax evasion regardless of annual income once convicted in a court, offering a fair and impartial trail, be subjected to the types of penalties ordinary families are forced to endure which is the usual scenario. Let the punishment fit the crime. Furthermore it should be the responsibility of the IRS through competent bookkeeping to maintain adequate records on filers rather than swooping in after years of delinquent taxes just to reap an enormous penalty soaked coup unrelenting to administer the harshest penalties. To procure the collection of inflated sums by the most cheap and easy method by many times targeting the defenseless as in the case of tax delinquent ex-wives working two jobs to support their children and pay their ex-husbands tax debt which whom the IRS will not even pursue.      
2. To use the Federal Student Loan repayment program as a model whenever possible. This program affords the provisions of 180-day grace periods before being considered late on an installment loan/consolidated student loan and has a repayment period of up to 25 years locked in and takes into account your actual financial statement. The IRS’s Installment Loan Program can be canceled at any time over a statutory period of ten years for being a few days late in any given month. The money paid toward the delinquency is confiscated, the original tax liability imposed with accruing penalties and interest back to the date of origin. You are subject to a review every two years, which could dramatically increase your installment amount, and entries on your financial statement are subject to allowable expenses. These expense caps are based on demographics and result in fantasy figures representing supposed discretionary funds available for repayment that only exist through IRS formulas. Some individuals have and will pay inflated tax liability figures over their entire lives and their surviving relatives will inherit the burden at the time of their death. The Student Loan Program affords forbearance for up to a year and longer for unexpected periods of financial hardship while still retaining all loan privileges interest at a competitive rate continues to accrue. The IRS has nothing to offer here but forced collection. When you enter into an installment agreement with the IRS you are gambling your house and your cars and your salary/job that you will never be laid off/fired from a job and never encounter financial hardship for up to ten years. The upside is you have your tax liability payable in installments; the downside is you forfeit the right to contest your tax liability and you technically volunteer to the agreement.
3. Reinforce the Taxpayer Advocate Program technically they are the buffer between you and the IRS. Question…why do you need an office to run interference between you and the IRS a taxpayer paid organization? And would someone please send a copy of this petition to the National Taxpayer Advocate in Washington, D.C.? In her last annual report she made no mention of the atrocities listed here only the pitfalls of the treacherous E-filing System. Our experience with our Taxpayer Advocate involved her continually trying to persuade us to participate in an installment loan agreement she said Offers in Compromise were rarely approved. She was supposed to bring issues of violation of taxpayer laws before the IRS, we saw no evidence of this even though we sighted the laws point in verse and had hard evidence to support our allegations.
4. Another question…what use is the Treasury Inspector General’s Hotline for Taxpayer Abuse? By the time you pass through all the qualifying screening if you are contacted at all the IRS will already have foreclosed on your house posted signs and have changed the locks.
5. Revise the standards for scrutinizing Offers in Compromise. The elderly on fixed incomes of $500.00 a month cannot be approved for O.I.C. proposals for $300.00 tax liabilities, and yes they were assessed interest and penalties for a total of $500.00 and it’s still accruing.
6. Organize a committee to investigate all allegations of human rights violations including acts of torture (mental or otherwise) as perpetrated against taxpayers for the last thirty years (or a generation). To facilitate the rescue of these individuals suffering in silence and eliminate the statute of limitations for guilty IRS Agents and their Managers to coincide with this period. This same committee to send investigators to pose as undercover low income tax payers to solicit help from L.I.T.C’s, Low Income Taxpayer Clinics and if they find they are too busy to be bothered assisting low income tax payers then kick them off the subsidized government payroll by canceling their privileges. Finally, just in case you need a committee to inform you that you are an inhuman monster perpetrating acts of torture and violating the human rights of taxpayers the immediate termination of all IRS Agents and their Managers in the Collection Division including but not limited to the O.I.C. Collections Unit and pending criminal investigation for the aforementioned allegations. An emergency task force to run the division until such time as suitable replacements can be trained.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]