Leaders of the National Society of Accountants have sent a letter to leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives opposing any resolution to impeach or censure IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
The letter, co-authored by NSA president Al Giovetti and executive vice president John Ams, went to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin, D-Mich.
At the same time, Speaker Ryan announced that the house will vote on whether to impeach Koskinen. (See the
“We are concerned that the effort to censure or impeach Commissioner Koskinen will hasten the deterioration of the voluntary compliance system that is the cornerstone of our taxing structure,” the letter reads. “The lack of respect for the IRS shown by such an effort, especially when coupled with the significant budget cuts enacted over the last several years, is already apparent as evidenced by the numerous taxpayers who ask NSA members why they should pay their taxes when the IRS does not have the ability to audit them.”
“We are also concerned that impeachment or censure will further disrupt the functioning of the IRS, which already suffers from low morale as a result of inadequate budgets and the inability to hire sufficient staff to deal with an ever-increasing workload,” the letter reads.
Giovetti and Ams conclude, “The effort to impeach or censure Commissioner Koskinen will inevitably take up time the Congress could better spend enacting meaningful tax reform that the taxpaying public, tax professionals, Congress and the Administration all agree is long overdue.”
