Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS

By Rick Yancey

Book Overview

Intrigues. Illicit affairs. Scheming corporate climbers. Welcome to the IRS. Plug anyone's name -- yes, yours -- into the computer at the Internal Revenue Service, add a Social Security number, and within three minutes, they know this about you: every place you've ever worked, how much money you make, who your spouse is, and where your investments are. And that's just the beginning. Confessions of a Tax Collector is the story of how being granted virtually unlimited power over other people's lives can radically alter one's own. Twelve years ago, Richard Yancey needed a job. He answered a blind ad in the newspaper offering a starting salary higher than what he'd made over the three previous years combined. It turned out that the job was as a field officer with the Internal Revenue Service, the most hated and feared organization in the federal government. It also turned out that Yancey was brilliant at it. In this secretive, paranoid culture, built around the premise of war, Yancey became a revenue officer, the man who gets in his car, drives to your house, knocks on the door, and makes you pay. Never mind that his car is littered with candy wrappers, his palms are sweaty, and he can't remember where he stashed his own tax records. He's there on the authority of the United States government. Yancey's keen eye and sardonic wit capture all the intrigue, fury, and ridiculous vanity beneath the dark suits and mirrored sunglasses. While sketching an astonishing cast of too-strange-for-fiction characters, Yancey details how the job changed him, and how he managed to pull himself back from the brink of moral, ethical, and spiritual bankruptcy. Confessions of a Tax Collector is a memoir that reads like fiction. If only that were true. You may never lie to your accountant again . . . because it's the Internal Revenue Service's world -- and we just pay taxes in it.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060555602
• ISBN13: 9780060555603
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.2" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

A Big Surprise

I got this book in hardcover last year after going through a real-life IRS audit of my own. I was hoping to gain some insight about the weirdo guy who did my audit and the odd, fortress-like feeling of the IRS building. What I found in Richard Yancey's book was a big surprise: a brilliant character study of the protagonist, an IRS collection agent with a conscience, and his riveting observations of everything around him. He explains the no-mercy, warfare mindset that is drilled into the heads of collection agents. He has a great cast of characters, fascinating explorations of both the collectors and their prey. The most intriguing part of book is Yancey's personal transformation. This is well-written, compelling stuff, done in sort of a David Sedaris memoir style, funny but sometimes painful. Although it's non-fiction, there is a real story here, with a beginning, middle, and end. This is quite a trick to pull off in a non-fiction book. I'm sure it's "dramatized" a bit to make this work, but who cares? I loved it. So now that you've turned in your 1040's, check this one out. I couldn't put it down.

Oddly Compelling

Admit it. You think this book is probably pretty boring. Tax Collector? Well, I assure you, it is certainly not boring; rather, it is an oddly compelling read that I just couldn't put down. (And no one is more shocked about that than I am!) Richard Yancey worked for 12 years as a revenue officer for the IRS collecting (or at least attempting to collect) unpaid employment taxes from small businesses. It was an interesting, challenging and sometimes grueling job for Yancey. Yancey's story is an interesting read for many reasons. First, he is an excellent writer. Second, the story he has to tell is interesting. His co-workers were a collection of colorful souls, all flawed, none of them the straight-laced, buttoned up type. Yancey also structures the story well and doesn't bore us with any memoir-style introspection. The book is paced well. Enjoy this one, despite any reservations you may have.

too extraordinary not to be true

I'm not a big fan of this type of book, but I finally relented to my wife's demands that I read it. I fully expected to be bored out of my mind --- a book about taxes! --- but this story totally took me by surprise. It was funny, entertaining and completely absorbing. Some of the reviews I've seen in the media miss the point, it seems to me. This isn't so much an expose of the IRS as a powerful exploration of the human condition, against the backdrop of the secretive IRS. Yancey came of age in this story, discovering strength in himself, including the strength to follow his heart to true love. When I put the book down I told my wife, "This is a love story, disguised as a book about the IRS." Yancey talks in the epilogue about the Service bringing him to the place where he could appreciate the things that truly matter in life. Thank God it did, so he could write this brilliant, wonderful book. Don't buy the reviews you read that insinuate the IRS nearly ruined this man's life. In my opinion, it saved his life.

Not Just a Tax Book....

I wasn't sure what to expect when I began this book. Not being a business major, but a liberal arts student I didn't have an interest in the actual workings of the IRS, but I soon learned this book was much more. Yancey explained the "technical" part of the agency's workings in fascinating but everyday terms. I actually enjoyed the personal tale that involved Yancey's finding his way home to be the best part of the book. I think either reader, the one most interested in this agency or the one looking for a book to entertain will be pleased. I agree with reviewer Steve Weinberg, "Confessions of a Tax Collector is not just a superb memior about working for the IRS, it's a superb memoir, period. "

Brillant....Did you see the Christian Science Monitor?

The reviews of this book are outstanding. This author has taken the revelation of this feared agency's secrets and weaved in a beautiul coming of age tale and love story. The critics are loving it as I am sure most readers will. Mr. Yancey has been receiving national praise. As for the O'reilly show, Fox owns the publisher, Harper Collins, so do you really think Mr. Yancey was invited on the show to discuss policy, no, it was to spread the word about this amazing book. I found it to be the best book I've read in a very long time.