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Internal Revenue Service Restructuring And Reform Act Of 1998: A Test Of New Public Management, William Meriwether Vandenburgh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The enactment of the 1998 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Reform Act resulted directly from perceived lapses in the federal taxation administration, which was publicly highlighted in Congressional hearings. Congress reacted by fundamentally altering the IRS’s implementation of the Internal Revenue Code (for the first time since 1952). The Joint Committee on Taxation noted that the overall objective of the 1998 IRS Reform Act was to have “a well-run IRS [which] is critical to the operation of our tax system.” From a public administration paradigm, the IRS moved from a traditional tax management methodology to a New Public Management (NPM) methodology. …