BY PAUL BARTON
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- A historic package of Internal Revenue Service reforms is set for final passage after congressional leaders and the White House announced agreement Wednesday.
The package -- the first IRS overhaul since 1952 -- also includes a major capital gains tax reduction as Republicans try to maintain their image as tax cutters going into the fall elections.
The reforms are designed to give taxpayers more rights and make the IRS more efficient and less abusive. It also resembles in many ways the recommendations made last year by a special commission headed by Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, and Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb.
The reforms follow a series of highly publicized Senate Finance Committee hearings this year and last that exposed "horror stories" about abusive IRS collection agents.
But the reforms and additional capital gains reductions will not come without a cost -- $13 billion over 10 years.
"It is an exciting day for the taxpayer. In a short period of time we have fundamentally restructured the second-largest agency of government for the first time in 46 years to make it far more responsive to taxpayers," Mr. Portman, R-Terrace Park, said as he joined congressional leaders in announcing the results of a House-Senate conference committee.
The House is expected to approve the package today with the Senate acting after the July 4 recess. President Clinton said Wednesday he would sign the bill.
