Should the Internal Revenue Service be exempt from compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act passed by Congress in December 19807 Sen. Lowell Weicker Jr., R-Conn., chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, and 12 members of his panel don’t think so. The’ve written a letter to Sen, Robert Dole, R-Kan. chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. opposing legislation which would excuse the IRS from adherence. The Paperwork Reduction Act was adopted to help ease the burden of duplicative and oftenunnecessary forms and regulations on small businesses. The act requires federal agencies to submit all their reporting and record keeping requests to the Office of Management and Budget for approval. Proponents of the legislation to exempt IRS argue that the law is resulting in delays in promulgating new IRS regulations, threatening the agency’s ability to collect taxes. It also claims the OMB lacks the expertise to review the highlytechnical IRS regulations. These assertions are challenged by Weicker and his committeemen, who claim IRS is “the most consistent source of small business paperwork complaints.” Those who claim the OMB lacks the expertise to review the highly-technical IRS regulations might ponder this question: If the rules are that technical, can the small businessman be expected to understand them’? An expertise the OMB lacks? Testimony during hearings by the 95th and 96th Congresses on the paperwork bill indicated the IRS is responsible for more than half of the estimated paperwork requirements imposed on the small business community, the Weicker group wrote. With the volume of IRS paperwork involved, the agency’s exculsion obviously would greatly undermine the impact of the law. The Reagan Administration is committed to reducing red tape and useless regulations and some members of Congress have made this a theme for years. Backers of the IRS exemption move are entitled to be heard, as are opponents. But unless urgent and highly-convincing reasons can be proven for excusing the agency from: compliance. Congressi should hold the line and; reinforce its backing of the paperwork act as it now stands. R