Political Quotes

“the GAO audit showed there are 3,000 audits of this kind performed each year. Of those audits, the report showed that 47 percent of them took place in Southern States. I looked further and saw that the GAO found that there were more random audits that took place in my State of Mississippi than in all of the States of New England combined. I couldn't believe that. I wondered why on Earth is that and then we find out that it is the working poor who are being targeted by these random audits. The numbers are just startling. Between 1994 and 1996, 94 percent of random audits were performed on individual taxpayers who earned less than $25,000 per year. If you think about that, these are people who probably don't normally retain a lawyer or maybe even a CPA or other tax advisor in the preparation of their audits. So what the amendment would do, which I cosponsor with the Senator from Georgia, is to require the IRS to give notice of why they are conducting an audit of taxpayers like this. It raises a question of just obvious unfairness. On its face, it is unfair and it ought to be changed.”