IRS Commissioner Discusses Role of IRS’ Criminal Investigation Division

Posted on July 05, 2016

In recent written testimony by IRS Commissioner John Koskinen before a House committee, he discussed the importance of the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division. A portion of his testimony follows:

“…the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) plays an important role in the detection and deterrence of financial crimes such as structuring, and the enforcement of the asset forfeiture laws. These laws aim to divest criminals of the fruits of their crimes, restore fraudulently obtained funds to crime victims, and punish those who would wantonly violate federal criminal law. Financial crimes weaken the US financial system and threaten the integrity of our tax system, as funds from legal and illegal sources go untaxed and contribute to the tax gap.

As the sole law enforcement agency responsible for investigating violations of our nation’s criminal tax laws and supporting federal tax compliance, IRS-CI plays a vital role in fighting financial crimes, and has a long history of working in partnership with law enforcement organizations at the federal, state, and local levels. IRS-CI agents have become known as the best financial investigators in the government, and their skills are often sought by other law enforcement agencies and prosecutors.

IRS-CI agents focus their efforts on such priorities as tax evasion, money laundering, public corruption and terrorist financing. IRS-CI’s conviction rate, which stands at 93 percent, is one of the highest amongst law enforcement agencies…”

If you are a regular reader of this blog, we believe in a strong IRS on both the civil and criminal side. A strong IRS on the civil side ensures that all taxpayers pay their fair share and that there are sufficient funds collected to run our country. A weak IRS not only allows, but encourages, people to not pay their fair share. What do you think?