Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT ...

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