Culinary remains skeptical about IRS’ promise

Friday, Sept. 22, 2006 | 7:30 a.m.

As the head of the state's largest union, D. Taylor has fought many battles with the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of his tip-earning members.

So it is no surprise that the Culinary Union boss is reluctant to join in the casino industry's jubilation over a promise by the IRS to honor an agreement not to audit participants in the tax agency's tip-reporting program.

The agency's commitment was made by IRS Commissioner Mark Everson during a meeting Wednesday on Capitol Hill with Nevada's two U.S. senators, Harry Reid and John Ensign.

Everson also promised to start the process of refunding any additional money participants paid the IRS as a result of being audited.

"It's great that the commissioner agreed with the concerns of the two senators," Taylor said. "But the ability to execute that through the bureaucracy of the IRS is a different story. We'll have to wait and see if the commissioner's guarantees come true."

Taylor said his 55,000-member union must remain vigilant to make sure the IRS carries out the commissioner's wishes.

"We have a lot of work to do," he said. "We have to hold the IRS accountable for what it told the senators."

In a joint news release with Reid on Thursday, Ensign described Everson's commitment as a "victory for the employers, union workers and our state as a whole."

The senators' efforts continued to draw praise from casino industry leaders.

"Obviously, credit goes to Sens. Reid and Ensign for insisting that the program not only go forward, but be improved for the benefit of Nevada's casino employees," said Wally Chalmers, vice president of the American Gaming Association, the industry's Washington lobbyist.

"The reason progress has been made in negotiations over renewal of Nevada's tip rate program is that all of the parties involved are working from the point of view that the program is worth saving."

Bill Bible, president of the Nevada Resort Association, the industry's political arm in the state, said Reid, Ensign and the rest of the state's congressional delegation were "tremendously helpful" in getting the IRS back on track.

"I think this is a win for casino employees in that the IRS has agreed to keep its end of the bargain that it made with them," Bible said. "But for the program to continue, the employees are going to have to be convinced that this is for real."

Last month, the Sun reported that union and casino industry leaders were outraged that thousands of voluntary participants in the program were being audited.

Under the program, IRS formulas based on workers' jobs, shifts and other factors determine the dollar amount of tips that must be reported on their tax returns, and in return the workers are told they need not worry about being audited.

Raphael Tulino, an IRS spokesman for Nevada, declined to comment Thursday.