TOP DRAWER BOOK REVIEW
by
HL Carpenter

 

Confessions of a Tax Collector
by Richard Yancey
364 pages; hardcover; $24.95
HarperCollins, New York, 2004

 

Back in the good old days, before the creation of the office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the Internal Revenue Service had teeth.

And they weren’t afraid to bite errant taxpayers.

Confessions of a Tax Collector is a chronicle of those times, told through the eyes of a former revenue officer. As a taxpayer, you should be horrified at the attitudes of government employees and the impenetrable maze of procedures.

Of course, as a taxpayer, you’re already familiar with them.

What turns Confessions of a Tax Collector into interesting reading is not the glimpse into the workings of the Internal Revenue Service. The office politics are no different than the standard fare countless other cubicle dwellers endure every day. Ditto for the enforcement scenes – they’re the same as those in any cop, lawyer or private eye drama.

Instead, the book’s strength is the back story – the tale of what happens to author Richard Yancey as he learns the system and grows into his own skin.

Confessions of a Tax Collector is a work of creative non-fiction, occasionally wordy, preachy and holier-than-thou, but generally infused with humor and a sharp sense of self. When you reach the last page, you may find yourself wondering how much was truth and how much was invention.

No doubt you’ll also be grateful for the current notion – whether truth or invention - of a kinder, gentler IRS.

 

Review originally published May 2004.