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Governmental Relationship and Communication Between the Internal Revenue Service and Indian Tribal Governments• “Building a relationship takes time, in some cases a lot of time; especiallyin those cases with higher turnover in personnel.”• “Communicating the respect due the Tribe’s government, our commitmentto ‘be there’ in terms of time and assistance, and following up on thosecommitments.”• “[K]eep your word when you tell them something.”• “Be open, listen, caring, give them time to respond.”• “As we move more into examinations, there is a normal reluctance toaccept ITG involvement as assistance. However, we approach evenexaminations as learning experiences and attempt to convey this. To theextent we are successful in relaying this as genuine conviction, the wallshave come down and cooperation has been forthcoming.”What Does Not Work as Well• “I had an experience with one Tribe where any correspondence from theIRS was placed in a pile. The problem was that nobody was opening theletters. Small problems became headaches.”• “[O]ur protocols call for us to address initial correspondence to the tribalchair/president, yet many times this person is not in full time attendanceand the letters may be delayed or never get into the hands of this official.”• “[C]hange in employees within the IRS makes it difficult for tribes to keepup with who to contact.”• “The problems in dealing with the tribes is the IRS budget process[inhibiting] being able to meet on a personal level without Exam orCompliance check issues. In my case the assignments are not close byand there is a lot of travel involved and in the past it was authorized but nolonger. The Tribe[s] need that personal contact and not be limited tospecifics such as Exams or Compliance checks.”In responding to the question about whether they perceived any difficulties in theirdealings with the Tribes, a number of specialists and managers responded bydescribing complaints or “pushback” they have received from their Tribal contacts, mostarising as a result of ITG enforcement activities. These responses provide a windowinto the specialists’ and managers’ perspectives about the Tribes’ perspectives of thestate of the relationships between the Tribes and the IRS. The following responses areillustrative:• “There has been a little push back on some of the exams. Part of which isattributable to not understanding what an exam is. Getting selected for anADVISORY COMMITTEE ON TAX EXEMPT AND GOVERNMENT ENTITIES (ACT) June 11, 2008 20
Governmental Relationship and Communication Between the Internal Revenue Service and Indian Tribal Governmentsexamination does not mean you have done something wrong; it is just away for us to determine if you are in compliance.”• “The examination issues are not working as well. No one likes to owemoney, and in some cases this is very confrontational. I am looking forthe day when it is not so much in my face.”• “[One Tribe in particular] believes that, as a Sovereign Nation, they shouldbe exempt from all Federal Taxation and ‘resent the IRS coming onto theirlands and trying to enforce the white mans laws upon them.’”• “I also believe some tribes are less likely to accept help from IRS. Manydo not have a favorable history with the IRS so they don’t see us assomeone who can help them. As a revenue agent who is there to help thetribes as well as audit them, I don’t think they see us as favorable as theycould.”• “The job is changing from outreach to compliance. The . . . pendulum isswinging and the tribes are not happy with the change. The tribes seethat there is only one specialist for the Federal, State and localgovernments in the state. Th[eir] audit coverage is higher in ITG than inFSLG and the tribes don’t like this.”Eight of the respondents stated that they have not seen any difficulties in their dealingswith the Tribes in the past year or did not answer the question.Although the most recurring theme in our surveys and follow-up discussions withspecialists and their managers was that face-to-face contacts are the most effectivecontacts for good relationships with the Tribes, we learned for our work on this reportthat specialists have varying practices when it comes to making sure they scheduleface-to-face meetings with representatives of their assigned Tribes on some regularbasis. At one extreme, one specialist reported that she spends 70 to 80% of her timeon the road at Tribal facilities, with a large percentage of that time consisting of outreachactivities. While we do not know whether she makes it a priority to schedule at leastone visit to each of her assigned Tribes each year, we assume that she attempts to doso (she is the same specialist who informed us that she attempts to contact each of herassigned Tribes at least four or five times per year). Another specialist, on the otherhand, informed us that he has not met some of his assigned Tribes in seven years ofservice in ITG.A number of specialists and managers that we talked to cited recent budgetaryconstraints as having an impact on their travel to Tribal facilities, especially when suchtravel will involve an overnight stay. One manager we spoke with stated that it is “moreeffective from a tax compliance perspective to place a big importance on relationships,”yet noted that a specialist’s request for approval of an overnight travel request to go onthe road to make one or more outreach contacts likely would be approved only if theADVISORY COMMITTEE ON TAX EXEMPT AND GOVERNMENT ENTITIES (ACT) June 11, 2008 21
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Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT ...

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