FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Today we took a major step forward toward an IRS that best serves the American people.

We are pleased that we have been able to work with the Congress to produce legislation that continues the important reforms to make the IRS work better for the American people. This legislation will help the great majority of taxpayers who voluntarily meet their tax obligations each and every year without offering encouragement for noncompliance.

The Administration and the Congress worked together to create an Oversight Board with private sector input and Executive Branch accountability, provide personnel flexibilities to best enable the IRS to recruit high-quality employees, and protect important taxpayer rights such as the protection of innocent spouses, the burden of proof for court cases, and the suspension of interest and penalties. There remains today the issue of how to pay for these important reforms, and we will continue to work with the conferees to address this issue.

We congratulate the conferees, the Congress and the IRS Restructuring Commission on their important work on this issue.