[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[July 30, 1996]
[Pages 1230-1231]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1230]]


Remarks on Signing the Taxpayer Bill of Rights 2 and an Exchange With 
Reporters
July 30, 1996

    The President. Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, Commissioner 
Richardson, Congresswoman Johnson, thank you for all your hard work on 
this. Senator Baucus, Senator Reid, Congressman Matsui, former 
Congressman Jake Pickle. You look like you're right where you belong, 
standing up here with everybody else today, Jake. [Laughter] We are glad 
to see you.
    I would like to say a special word of thanks to Senator Grassley, 
who was not able to come at the last moment, for his hard work on this, 
and a special word of thanks to my longtime friend David Pryor, who has 
been on this mission to improve the IRS and make it work better for 
taxpayers for more than 10 years now. I'm glad to say that we are, I 
hope, nearly finishing the work that he started out on before he leaves 
the Senate. And I thank you for all you've done, sir.
    I want to applaud the leadership of the Republicans and the 
Democrats in the House and the Senate who worked so hard for this bill. 
If my memory is right, the bill passed unanimously in the House and by 
voice vote in the Senate. And it happened because we all worked together 
in a good spirit of bipartisanship toward a common goal.
    Nobody likes to pay taxes anyway, but it's also a fact that the 
taxes pay for our national defense, our schools, our roads, our 
transportation systems, our police, and so much more that we depend upon 
every day. Still, the taxpayers have a right to feel that every one of 
their hard-earned dollars they give up actually works for them, and we 
have to make sure that the IRS doesn't tangle the American people up in 
redtape, that it is not arbitrary, and that taxpayers are treated with 
the respect to which they are entitled. We're getting there.
    More than 70 percent of our taxpayers already pay at the 15 percent 
rate. Many of them use a form that finally lives up to its name. The 
1040EZ form is really now easy to understand and to follow. It's one 
page long, and you don't even need to do that. If you're eligible to 
file the EZ form, you now have the option of filing without any 
paperwork at all; all you have to do is pick up the phone. Of the more 
than 20 million people eligible to file the EZ form, more than 2.8 
million file by phone in under 10 minutes. Now, that would be the 
ultimate in tax simplification if we could do it for everyone.
    Many other taxpayers file on-line. This year, more than 12 percent 
of all our filers, nearly 15 million Americans, filed their individual 
returns electronically and got their refunds as soon as 3 weeks. People 
who file the old-fashioned way, on paper and in the mail, got their 
refunds in about 40 days, longer than I would like but just half the 
time it took just a few years ago. Eight and a half million electronic 
filers took advantage of a new direct deposit of refunds, and their 
refunds went directly to their bank accounts in as little as 10 days. So 
filing taxes is getting simpler, quicker, and clearly that's better for 
the American people.
    We're trying to inject more common sense and fairness into the 
process. As the Secretary said, the legislation passed 8 years ago, the 
first taxpayer bill of rights, set the groundwork. But with this 
legislation today we take the next step in the right direction. The 
least we can do for consumers is to see that they're treated 
professionally, fairly, and judiciously.
    As the Secretary said, this bill has 41 recommendations. When the 
bill was formed, we looked at it, and we decided we could implement 
something over a third of them by administrative order, which we have 
done. The rest of them do require legislation, and now every subsequent 
administration will be bound by all of them because it is becoming the 
law of the land.
    This taxpayer bill of rights applies to almost every situation in 
which the IRS and taxpayers deal with each other. Here are some examples 
of what it does: First, it truly empowers the taxpayer advocate office 
at the IRS with increased authority to help taxpayers to resolve 
disputes, get refunds for people facing hardships, and to stop 
collection actions. Second, the bill requires the IRS to inform divorced 
or separated spouses when it attempts to collect joint taxes from the 
other spouse. Third, it will make it easier to appeal tax liens. Fourth, 
it

[[Page 1231]]

makes it easier for taxpayers to recover attorney fees if improper 
action has been taken against them. And fifth, a taxpayer would have a 
longer grace period to make a tax payment without owing any interest. 
These are just some of the things that this good bill does.
    The legislation is truly a leap forward. With the taxpayer bill of 
rights we say to America's taxpayers, when you deal with the IRS, you 
also have privileges, and we respect them. You have protection, and we 
will help to provide it. You have rights, and we will shield them. Your 
rights as a taxpayer, plain and simple, your rights will be protected; 
your privacy will be honored; you will be treated with courtesy; you are 
entitled to representation; you pay only what you owe by law, no more 
and no less; you're entitled to get help with special problems; you have 
the right to appeal your case, even to court; and you can be relieved of 
penalties if you acted in good faith, even if you made an honest 
mistake. The IRS Commissioner is putting this declaration at the very 
front of the main publication that goes to every taxpayer the IRS 
contacts.
    This legislation represents an important step in our ongoing efforts 
to improve the system from the point of view of the taxpayer. After all, 
they not only pay the bills, they are ultimately the bosses of this 
country, and they're entitled to be treated with respect and fairness. 
Our people work hard for what they have. Our goal is to let them know 
that their Government is working hard, too, to give them the best 
service it can and the fairest tax treatment it can.
    It's an honor to sign the taxpayer bill of rights. And once again, I 
ask that we all join in giving these Members of Congress a round of 
applause for the work they did. Thank you. [Applause]

[At this point, the President signed the legislation.]

    Q. Mr. President, do you think taxpayers have not been treated with 
respect in this country?
    The President. I think that we haven't done as good a job as we 
should have done, and I think that this bill will help us to do a better 
job. I think that the taxpayer bill of rights 8 years ago was an 
important step. And I think these 41 or so steps embodied in this bill 
will say to the American people, look, you're legally bound to pay the 
taxes you owe and collecting them is never going to be a perfect 
process, but we're going to bend over backwards to treat you fairly and 
treat you with respect. And I think that's a pretty good message. And I 
do think that there are too many Americans that have some example where 
they think that was not the case at sometime in the past. And we're just 
trying to get better at what we do, and this will help.

Welfare Reform

    Q. Mr. President, we know you're waiting to see the final conference 
report on welfare reform, but can you tell us based on what you know now 
about what the committee's done on legal immigrants, food stamps, and 
vouchers? Is this bill getting more signable, or is there still a chance 
you'll veto it?
    The President. From what I understand, they've made some good 
progress today. And I've been, you know, meeting with President Mubarak 
so I haven't gotten a report in the last hour or so. But I understand 
they're making good progress. And I hope that they will--we just need to 
keep the kids in mind. We need to keep the children in mind. The 
children need to come out ahead. What we want for poor families, I'll 
say again, is what we want for middle class families and for upper 
income families. We want people to be able to succeed at raising their 
kids and at work. It's the biggest dilemma middle class people have in 
America today, how can they succeed at work and in raising their kids. 
And that's what we want for poor families.
    So whatever system we adopt to reform welfare, the budgetary 
considerations in the nonwelfare items in the bill shouldn't swamp our 
objective of ultimately uplifting the children of the country. That's 
what we're working for. It's getting better, and I hope that we can work 
it out. I really do.

Note: The President spoke at 2:40 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to former Representative James 
Jarrell (Jake) Pickle of Texas. H.R. 2337, approved July 30, was 
assigned Public Law No. 104-168.