<p>The Internal Revenue Service fired 71 employees between July 1998 and September 2002 for misconduct under a provision of a 1998 IRS reform law, a new report said.</p>
<p>The General Accounting Office report said the IRS or the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration completed investigations on 3,512 allegations and substantiated 419 as violations, resulting in 71 IRS employees being fired. Among the violations were failures to file tax returns on time and failures to state tax liability accurately. Remedies in other cases included penalties and employees leaving the IRS, the GAO said.</p>