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Sunday, September 28, 1997

Houston woman of IRS: 'These people will stop at nothing'

By ROB WELLS / AP Tax Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The star of the Senate's IRS investigation was a Houston woman who put her career on the line by describing, in vivid terms, something terribly wrong within the tax collection agency.

"Many agents are encouraged by management to pursue tax assessments that have no basis in law from individuals who simply can't fight back," Jennifer Long told a stunned Senate Finance Committee hearing. "I do feel taxpayers' rights are being violated."

The Houston-based revenue agent said in interviews this week her decision to go public evolved from grievances against her Houston office managers. But she believes her problems at work highlight broader abuses of power.

A defining moment in her 15-year IRS career came last November, when Long said "management" -- she won't reveal names -- sent an IRS inspector pounding on her door, ostensibly to retrieve case files. Long, who sometimes works from her house when doing field audits, contends the only reason the inspector was sent was to harass her.

"That scared me. That was intimidating," Long said. "I felt they were out of control. These people will stop at nothing."

Long, a 46-year-old speaking calmly and directly, said the "grievances and targeting of me started because I clearly was not a person that could be bought into getting other employees or trying to get the taxpayers."

"I would say ... that my testimony is more like protection for myself," she said. The employment grievance became so bitter that Long feared her managers "want to destroy my professional reputation."

IRS spokesman Henry Holmes in Houston said federal worker privacy laws prevent him from commenting about 10 grievances Long said she's filed against management since July 1996.

"She is free to say what she wants about her own personal situation," Holmes said.

Long testified Wednesday, under oath, without her identity concealed. A former agent and five current ones addressed the committee the following day from behind cloth screens, their voices electronically scrambled.

In her testimony, Long charged the IRS inspection division, which investigates employee wrongdoing, has been "used as a tool by management to harass and intimidate its employees." In addition, Long charged IRS management with "fabricating evidence against the taxpayer" to run up tax bills. She said he heard that in some cases friends of management were made off-limits for audits.

IRS officials said they couldn't comment directly on the allegations but described them as extremely serious. Acting IRS Commissioner Michael Dolan ordered the agency's inspector general to investigate, as did Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, saying Long described criminal behavior.

While the committee found Long to be a compelling witness, few details about her background were revealed at the hearing. Tense and visibly worn, she refused reporters' requests for comments outside the hearing room.

A day later, relaxing at an outdoor cafe in Washington's trendy Dupont Circle neighborhood, Long discussed her career, passion for world travel, foreign language skills and hobby of country dancing. And she spoke of her decision to testify.

"I don't think I would have come forward unless they sent inspectors to my house," Long said.

She wrote a lengthy letter to then-IRS Commissioner Margaret Richardson complaining about the Houston office management. After no response, she contacted her congressman, Rep. Bill Archer, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. He's a Houston Republican who wants to "tear the IRS out by its roots" in favor of a national sales tax.

"When Jennifer Long contacted Congressman Archer, (he) ... saw it looked like a serious case, and it was worth taking the highly unusual step of contacting the IRS commissioner himself," Archer spokesman James Wilcox said Saturday.

After an exchange of letters, the IRS' chief inspector sent a letter to Archer in March that "defended the actions of Ms. Long's superiors," Wilcox said.

How will her colleagues react when she returns to work Monday? Long laughed and said she expects people will be uncomfortable just to be seen with her, but she expects friends will remain.

"There have been some people who have stuck with me through thick and thin through this," she said. "I mean, there are some very good, good, honorable people at the IRS."