IRS warns against cheating

WASHINGTON - Less than a week before the tax filing deadline, IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti is warning taxpayers not to be tempted to cheat because of falling audit rates.

"If you want to make bets, your odds would be better to go to a casino," he said.

In an interview yesterday with The Associated Press, Rossotti said that, like millions of other taxpayers, he is asking for the automatic four-month extension beyond Monday's deadline to finish his return and that his taxes are done by an accountant.

Unlike most people, Rossotti gets audited every year.

"That's one of the privileges of being commissioner," he said with a grin. "I really do want to file an accurate tax return."

Last year, the percentage of audited returns fell to below one-half of 1 percent, which Rossotti blamed on tight budgets over the past five years and lack of money to replace antiquated Internal Revenue Service computers.

President Bush is asking Congress for a $580 million increase for the IRS for fiscal 2002, mainly for technology and to continue hiring about 4,000 in additional staff, in part to beef up enforcement.

"Continuing to drop, year after year, would not be a sound thing," Rossotti said. "We have to have a certain amount of compliance activity."

But audits, the IRS chief added, represent only one of many ways the IRS checks returns for cheaters. Computers match taxpayer documents with those provided by banks, employers and other sources for accuracy. Even neighbors can be a source for the agency.

"You'd be surprised how many people tell us about other people who don't fill out accurate returns," he said.

Still, he said the IRS need not adopt a harsher stance toward taxpayers — a stance in conflict with the more service-oriented agency Congress sought when it passed a major reform law in 1998.

"I've never viewed it as either/or, that we're nice to people and don't collect taxes or that we're tough and mean and collect taxes," Rossotti said. "I view our whole mission as doing both of those more effectively than we have in the past."