Taxes
National Taxpayer Advocate Finds Hope in IRS Plan
She also shares hope that with long-term funding and prudent management, there is light at the end of the tunnel for taxpayers and practitioners who have experienced problems.
Apr. 07, 2023
In the latest NTA BLOG, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins dives into the details of the IRS’s newly released Strategic Operating Plan (SOP) outlining how it plans to use nearly $80 billion in additional funding received as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
She also shares hope that with long-term funding and prudent management, there is light at the end of the tunnel for taxpayers and practitioners who have experienced problems over the past three years.
“This is a game changer to transform how the U.S. government administers the tax laws in a more helpful and efficient manner while focusing on providing the service taxpayers deserve,” Collins writes in the blog.
As she explained in her March 16 NTA Blog, Collins continues to stress the importance for improved taxpayer services and IT modernization and calls for Congress to reallocate IRS funding to better balance enforcement with service and IT needs.
Collins emphasizes, “The success of IT is instrumental in accomplishing the SOP’s objectives of improving compliance. Allocating more funds to service and IT is key to taxpayers and tax administration.
She continues, “As more Americans interact with the IRS each year than with any other federal agency the government has a moral and practical obligation to make those interactions as productive, fair, and painless as possible.”
The blog goes on to outline a list of service recommendations and IT projects in the IRS’s plan (that reflect prior TAS recommendations) that have the ability to dramatically reform the IRS.
Collins concludes, “I am hopeful and optimistic that five years from now, tax administration will be transformed and taxpayers, for the first time in memory, will receive the service they deserve.”