Quote:That is against the law.
So is punishing whistle-blowers.
In 1997 I was a union official in NY for IRS workers. That year, Senator William Roth held a series of hearings into what he considered abusive IRS practices and one of his star witnesses was a female revenue agent from Texas named Jennifer Long. Unlike some others who testified anonymously from behind a screen, Long testified openly about the pressures that were placed on agents by management to, as she put it:
Quote:The IRS will often pursue a taxpayer who is viewed to be vulnerable. To the IRS, vulnerability can be based on a perception that the taxpayer has limited formal education, has suffered a personal tragedy, is having a financial crisis, or may not necessarily have a solid grasp of their legal rights. Please understand, many agents are encouraged by management to pursue tax assessments that have no basis in tax law from individuals who simply can't fight back. However, if that taxpayer does object or complain, every effort will be made by the IRS to run up their tax assessment, deplete their financial resources and force them to capitulate to IRS demands.
Of course she was right and it was no different in NY than it was in Texas. I recall watching her testimony and being totally enthralled because as a union official I knew what was coming. It took balls. At the end four US senators, including Roth, assured her that if there was any retaliation by the IRS she was to contact them instantly. Now you might think that would be enough to prevent a bunch of spineless bureaucrats from trying anything.
You would be wrong.
They didn't try to go after her for whistle-blowing and she never discussed specific cases so there was no "disclosure" problem. Instead,
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/apr/17/news/mn-28267
Quote:IRS Moves to Fire Agent Who Told of Taxpayer Abuse
Government: Star witness in 1997 Senate hearing believes action is retaliation by her managers.
April 17, 1999
Quote:Jennifer Long was a star witness, the first IRS agent to tell Congress about abuse of taxpayers without hiding her identity, and now steps are being taken to fire her despite years of strong performance ratings.
Yeah. Performance reviews are done annually and from the dates involved it is obvious that she had already had her annual review prior to her testimony. Which means that when her Annual Appraisal came up in 1998 they wasted no time in deciding that she was all of a sudden a lousy agent in spite of those years of strong performance ratings. When all the contractual provisions had been winked at they issued their final determination....which had obviously been written and was just waiting for a date and she did go to Roth and the others and also to the press.
Having been caught the commissioner stopped any action and one imagines he got a richly deserved ass-reaming from Roth which hopefully he passed down the line to those dumb shits in Texas.
We later learned that she retired as soon as eligible. I'm sure they made her life miserable in any way they could think of.
So laws are one thing. Justice is something completely different.
