USA Today Quotes Christopher Rizek: The IRS Wants To Read You Your Rights

USA Today quoted Christopher S. Rizek concerning enforcement policies for taxpayer rights. The article specifically focused on the IRS's June 8th declaration of the " Taxpayer Bill of Rights". IRS officials assert that the bill of rights was intended to educate taxpayers and increase confidence in the tax system, but Mr. Rizek questioned how it would be enforced. For the complete article, please visit, USA Today's website.

Excerpt taken from the article.

Christopher Rizek, a former Treasury Department lawyer who worked on previous taxpayer rights legislation, said the IRS has long tried to balance taxpayer rights with enforcement actions to crack down on abusive tax evasion schemes.

He said the rights are mostly "this piece of paper posted in every IRS office next to the pictures of the president and the commissioner."

"The question I still have is, what is going to be the enforcement mechanism?" said Rizek, now an attorney with Caplin & Drysdale in Washington. "In most circumstances, the IRS internal procedures give no enforceable rights."