The Internal Revenue Service says it will re-evaluate an initiative that encourages organizations and volunteer tax preparers to send canned letters to the editors of their local newspapers. An IRS Web page contains sample letters promoting the earned income tax credit and volunteer tax assistance sites. It instructs users to “just copy and paste” a letter onto their letterhead, sign their own name, and send it to a newspaper.
“I think this is going a little too far,” conceded IRS Communications Director Terry Lemons when he was alerted to the Web page.“This whole business of copy-and-pasting; we shouldn’t be doing that.”
Lemons said the agency will “make some adjustments” in the program.
A Google search revealed that the letters have appeared in at least a dozen newspapers, such as the Pittsburg (Kansas) Morning Sun, the (Pascagoula) Mississippi Press, and the Weirton (WV) Daily Times. Though the letters track virtually word-for-word to the IRS sample letters, each is signed by a different author, typically an official of a local social service agency that provides tax assistance.
“The goal of this was very well intentioned,” said Lemons, a former correspondent for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “This is trying to get information to people who really can use it to help them get an important tax credit that they’re entitled to.”
“We’ll take a look at it, and we’ll figure out something that’s not going to present an ethical challenge,” Lemons said.
