Excerpt from his speech:
I’m now seven months into my five-year term. It’s an honor and privilege to lead the IRS. And for each day I’ve been in office, I’ve been amazed by what an incredible organization the IRS is.Just think about it for a minute. The IRS not only collects the approximately $3 trillion it takes to run the federal government but interacts every year with practically every American adult and business. We’re the face of government. And contrary to some opinion, it can be a most welcome face. This year, as of October 24th, we issued 106 million tax refund checks totaling $254 billion.
And, as you know, we work very closely with the non-profit community — whether it’s processing over 70,000 determination applications per year or applying oversight or audits when we detect a problem.
Now, in addition to the filing season, a lot has happened in these seven months. It’s not a time in my life I will easily forget. . .
More:
We’ve also began conducting studies of several of the largest taxpayer segments within the tax-exempt community by sending out comprehensive questionnaires that focus on an area of interest and then analyzing the responses. If necessary, we can follow up with an examination.In fact, we’re about to release the hospital study report. Stay tuned, but I can say this much. I’m confident that the new hospital schedule for the Form 990 — the Schedule H — is the right tool to allow nonprofit hospitals, of all types and sizes, to report how they promote the health of their communities and to justify their tax exemption. And the Schedule H will give the IRS and the public better transparency into these important institutions.
We also recently launched a study of colleges and universities. In the spirit of collaboration and the recognition that we must be in dialogue with sectors with whom we engage, we did advance work with colleges and universities on the questionnaire. We wanted to understand how they talk about themselves, what kind of measures they use, and so forth. When we have agreement about what data means, we eliminate a lot of friction. I want to apply this lesson throughout the IRS, not just in Exempt Organizations.