Evening star., 1952-08-14
Dunlap Defends Tax Bureau
On Compromise Settlements
BY the Associated Press

|ONOHPTOH1IS(
BY the Associated Press
The Internal Revenue Bureau
is sometimes charged with favor
ing certain taxpayers when it is
only trying to collect all the taxes
it can, says Commissioner John
B. Dunlap.
Mr.. Dunlap also said in an in
terview that-with the backing
of his boss, Treasury Secretary
Snyder-he is trying to let more
light in on long-secret aspects of
the bureaus business.
But there are legal restrictions,
Mr.. Dunlap said, adding:
II am not going to make deci-
sions, no matter who pushes, un-
less they are right, honest, and
it is for the best interest of the
Government, which includes its
citizens"
This followed the release yes
terday of MI. Dunlap's reply to a
critical telegram from James S.
Pope of the Louisville Courier
Journal. Mr.. Pope heads the
Freedom of Information Commit
tee of the American Society of
Newspaper Editors.
when the Revenue Bureau
settles a tax case for a few cents
on the dollar, the people who pay
in full are entitled to know of
it," Mr.. Pope said. yet under
your new policy these transac-
tions would remain secret if the
bureau can keep them secret. The
people have no FBI of their own
to ferret out the names of ia
vored tax evaders."
Will Reveal Applications.
Mr.. Dunlap promised, in his
reply, to make public all applica-
tions from organizations asking
tax-free status. But he declined,
for the time being at least, to
go beyond his previously
announced policy for publicizing
tax cases settled by compromise.
Applications for tax-free status,
Mr.. Dunlap said, will be made
available during the bureaus re-
organization scheduled for con-
clusion by the end of the year.
A week ago, Dunlap announced
full details of tax compromises
would be disclosed whenever a
case was challenged in Congress.
Other compromise settlements, he
said, would remain where they
were, locked in the bureaus Sc
cret files.
Senator Williams, Republican,
or Delaware. a frequent critic of
the Revenue Bureau, contended
it settles some delinquent ac-
counts for a few cents on the
dollar. Senator Williams ques-
toned whether any citizen could
pay his taxes that way.
About compromise settlements
Mr.. Dunlap said:
/. "The Government never ac-
|cepts a compromise for less than
Ia person can pay and never COM
promises at all on how much q
|person should pay"
2. The compromise settlement
lis a method, established by Con-
|gress, of taking what you can
|get. It offers relief to widows
whose chief legacy was a tax debt,
to sick and unemployed persons,
to the bankrupt and other un-
fortunates. 1t is entirely different
from the negotiated settlement.
Lien Is for Full Amount.
s. "To protect the Government.
interest, we slap on lien to the
full amount of the taxpayers deb
to the Government. But there Il
no way to collect what a person
does not have. For instance, if 9
person has holdings of a million
dollars, and owes the Government
a million in taxes, we put liens or
his property of a million. But il
the property is mortgaged, the
Government cannot sell it and
collect. We can only collect what
is available. and we do. But it is
often much less than the tax debt
and that can lead to misunder-
standing"
4. Tax compromise offers are
only made after the tax liability
(debt) is determined. In COM
promise cases, there is no uues-
ton as to how much the Gov
ernment has coming to it. The
question is over how much the
Government can collect. Any tax
payer who is broke can make q
compromise offer. The offer has
to be approved by the field agent
and reviewed by his superiors
right up to the Secretary (of the
Treasury before it is accepted .
5. Beyond this, there are the
plain bad debt accounts, such as
any business giving credit has to
contend with. These are people
who cannot pay anything. And
there are the nomadS-peopIe