Treasury has its own solution to IRS problems.

There have been plenty of public statements on how to improve the way the Internal Revenue Service collects taxes. Some members of Congress have said they want to abolish the IRS altogether and institute a single, postcard-size flat tax form for all businesses and individuals, while others have scheduled committee hearings and commissions, such as the National Commission on Restructuring the IRS, to consider new ways to improve IRS operations. Now the Treasury Department--which oversees the IRS--has made public its own plan to make the IRS more responsive to taxpayers' needs and use technology more effectively.

In March, Lawrence Summers, deputy secretary of the treasury, told members of the Tax Executives Institute in Washington, D.C., that the Treasury had established a framework that would enable the IRS to "get its mission accomplished." To do this, Summers said the Treasury …