October 30, 1997 | Read Time: 1 minute
A proposal moving through Congress to revamp the Internal Revenue Service does not include a recommendation to earmark special funds for charity regulators that had been recommended by a high-profile commission. A never-used provision of federal law allows I.R.S. regulators of charities and pension plans to get budget money by using revenue from the excise taxes on investment income paid by private foundations.
The National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service recently said that Congress should renew this “independent source of funding” rather than continue to force the financially strapped regulators to vie with other I.R.S. offices for money.
But a plan to overhaul the service unveiled by Rep. Bill Archer, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, would repeal the provision altogether. The reason: Mr. Archer’s plan said that the provision, if used, would result in “an unstable level of funding that may bear little or no relation to the amount of financial resources actually required” by the I.R.S.
