Former Rep. James Traficant

Special Thanks To: Ex CIA Agent Boris Korczak for much of the archive material as well as Christopher Sciumbata. Special thanks to Former Congressional Staffer Robert Korczak for conserving the archives and maintaining the website.

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TRAFICANT, James A., Jr.,

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February 25, 1998

TRAFICANT BILL PROTECTS TAXPAYERS  FROM UNWARRANTED IRS SEIZURES Washington, D.C. – For more than a decade, U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant, Jr. (D–OH) has been working in Congress to reform the Internal Revenue Service and protect taxpayers from IRS abuses.  Today, Traficant continued his crusade by introducing legislation to prevent unwarranted IRS seizures.   Traficant announced that the chairman of the tax writing House Ways and Means Committee, U.S. Rep. Bill Archer (R–TX), made a commitment today to Traficant that he would work to have Traficant's seizure bill included in the final version of the IRS reform bill working its way through Congress.

 Traficant's bill requires the IRS to get judicial consent prior to seizing any taxpayer property.  The bill also mandates that the IRS provide a 15-day notice before seizing any property.  Finally, the measure allows taxpayers to exclude from their gross income calculation any damages they are awarded in a federal court proceeding related to IRS misconduct.

 A number of Traficant-authored IRS reform initiatives have been enacted into law in recent years.  These include a mandatory taxpayer sensitivity training program for IRS agents, a provision to make it easier for taxpayers to sue the IRS for willful misconduct, and increasing the penalty for IRS agent misconduct from $100,000 to $1 million.  Last fall, the House-passed IRS reform bill included a major Traficant-sponsored provision to shift the burden of proof in civil tax cases from a taxpayer to the IRS.

 The House passed an IRS reform bill last fall.  The Senate is expected to pass a similar bill later this year.  Any differences between the two bills would have to be ironed out in a House-Senate conference committee.  Traficant received a commitment today from Chairman Archer that Archer would work in conference to have the Traficant seizure bill included in the final version of the IRS reform legislation.  Archer also assured Traficant that he would work in conference to ensure that Traficant's
"burden of proof" language remains in the bill.

2009

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