IRS Opens Its Doors for Day of Special Help

Gus Wilson left the Los Angeles IRS office Saturday with news--and money--that he never expected.

Darril Trimble wasn’t so happy, still confused about a $16,000 lien that the IRS recently put on his bank account.

Chris and Alan Gandall lugged 11 boxes of tax documents dealing with audits going back to 1988 to the agency’s Laguna Niguel office, but walked away with little to show for their efforts.

The four taxpayers, and thousands of others across the country, took their complaints directly to the IRS Saturday during what the agency’s called its “problem-solving day.” IRS officials opened 33 offices nationwide for what they say will be a monthly event.

“Now I get to see the face of the IRS,” said Richard Pelletier of Pasadena.

The problem-solving day is part of efforts by the agency to allay recent criticism that it is out of touch with the public. In September, the IRS issued an apology after dramatic Senate hearings publicized alleged abuses by the agency, including the use of illegal tax collection quotas and harassment of lower-income taxpayers.

At a rally Saturday in Roswell, Ga., House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who supported recent legislation to overhaul the agency, denounced the IRS event as a “public relations gimmick designed by the White House.”

“It’s a nice thing to do but it’s not a substitute for the kind of profound reform that is in the IRS reform bill that was passed by the House two weeks ago,” Gingrich said.

Gimmick or not, the event helped dispel for some the notion that the IRS is out to get taxpayers.

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Across the nation, about 3,500 people made appointments to discuss questions about escalating penalties or clearing up late returns. More than 200 IRS workers were on hand in downtown Los Angeles to deal with 435 appointments and any walk-in cases.

The downtown federal building opened its doors about 8 a.m., an hour earlier than planned, to accommodate a growing crowd outside. Agency executives, who usually spend their work days away from the public, donned bright blue and yellow badges inscribed with the words “We Work for You” and chaperoned taxpayers to bilingual agents speaking Spanish, Tagalog and Chinese.

“We want people to realize that we care about people,” Pete Florio, chief of the district office’s research division, said as he greeted visitors. “We’re not as bad as you’ve heard.”

Most people waiting for appointments wanted a speedy resolution and some kind of explanation for the bills they had received. Even tax experts arrived looking for help with the IRS’ bewildering rules and codes. Rene Pierra, a licensed tax preparer from Covina, waited patiently for an agent to explain why the IRS sent him a bill for $26,000.

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For some, like Wilson, the day was a success. He left the IRS’ Los Angeles office pleased after being told that the agency owes the Pomona church where he works more than $3,000.

Pelletier, a Pasadena art student, said he, too, was delighted now that his confusion over a 1995 tax assessment of $1,000 was cleared up. Like many others, he said that previous telephone conversations with IRS agents had proven fruitless.

“The only other way I knew how to have resolved this would have been to see a tax attorney at $150 an hour,” Pelletier said.

But others remained unimpressed by the agency’s attempt to boost its tarnished image.

Trimble still can’t understand why the IRS put a lien on his bank account. Despite often asking for documents explaining why he owes money from as far back as 1987, IRS officials have sent him nothing to help, he said.

Liborio Tacanga and his wife, Modesta, also left the Los Angeles office dejected. The couple lost their South-Central mini-mart during the 1992 riots. Then, they were forced to sell their house to pay off an old legal suit won by an employee who claimed a work-related injury. Now the IRS is demanding $14,000, they said.

The couple thought, to no avail, that the agency might waive the bill at Saturday’s session.

“We don’t have money to pay the IRS at all,” said the Tacangas’ daughter, who did not want to give her name. “We don’t have money to eat.”

The Gandalls in Orange County remained upset over IRS demands that they make a compromise payment on $500,000 in back taxes. The couple say they owe nothing.

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“We went there thinking they could cut through some of the red tape,” Chris Gandall said. “But instead we wasted two hours and are back to where we were.”

Taxpayers’ responses to the event were similarly mixed around the country, depending on whether agents were able to solve their individual problems.

In Baltimore, where IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti greeted people at the office’s door, Tony Zappardino said he was “very, very pleased” with the resolution of a case involving seizure of almost $30,000 from his bank account for payment of his daughter’s disputed back taxes.

“The young lady who took care of me did it in a beautiful way,” Zappardino said. “They should do this all the time.”

Vivian and Charles Shih had a “small problem” with payroll taxes and decided to pursue it at the Baltimore office. To their surprise, the Shihs found themselves chatting about their payroll with the Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.

“It was really gratifying to speak to some of the people here,” Rubin said. “It helps set a tone inside the Internal Revenue Service.”

In Hartford, Conn., Scott Davis, an accountant, praised the agency’s attempt to deal “like a business would deal with customers. I was able to do in one hour what it took four years of paperwork to deal with.”

In Indianapolis, however, Harry R. Thompson said he remained suspicious about the IRS’ motives for the event.

“This is nothing more than a good public relations stroke,” he said. “This is what occurs when a company is in trouble. They cannot change the IRS.”

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Times staff writer Tina Nguyen and Associated Press contributed to this story.