Defiant IRS chief John Koskinen has a message for Republicans: You can't kill the Taxman.
Rejecting GOP proposals to abolish the agency, Koskinen insists the United States has to have a tax collector in one form or another.
"You can call them something other than the IRS if that made you feel better," Koskinen said after a speech at the National Press Club Tuesday,
The Hill reports.
Though the agency has sparked the ire of Republicans over the agency's tea party targeting scandal — and the
former official at the center of the controversy, Lois Lerner — Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz has made the most pointed call for an end to the IRS, The Hill notes.
During his speech announcing his presidential candidacy last month, Cruz spoke of "a simple flat tax that lets every American fill out his or her taxes on a postcard."
"Imagine abolishing the IRS," he added.
But Koskinen scoffed at the notion, saying even under the simplest of tax codes, the federal government would need an agency to collect revenue and administer the tax code.
"Somebody has to collect the money, and then somebody also has to make sure when you fill in the small card, you're putting in the right numbers," Koskinen said.
Yet Koskinen conceded the targeting scandal got people angry — as well as a complicated tax code.
"I think that's a lot of what's behind, you know, 'get rid of the IRS.' It's really 'get rid of this complicated tax code.' And to that extent, I think that's a reasonable goal," Koskinen said, The Hill reports.
Cruz isn't the only Republican railing at the complicated tax code.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican is also expected to launch a 2016 White House bid, has also endorsed a flat tax, calling the IRS "too big, too powerful, and we absolutely should scrap the code,"
BizPac Review reports.
Twitter users reacted strongly, with one challenging Koskinen. Another tweeted his disgust at the "defiance of the Mandarin class."
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