The IRS’s Annual Report Card Is In, and It Isn’t Pretty
The agency must shift from a focus on its own needs to address the needs of taxpayers, the Taxpayer Advocate writes.
Internal Revenue Service headquarters in Washington.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Most Americans could give you an earful about what’s wrong with the Internal Revenue Service. But could they produce a critique so vast and deep that the executive summary alone is 106 pages?1484078297919
That feat is performed annually by Nina Olson and her team at the Taxpayer Advocate’s office, an independent body within the IRS. Every year, it must produce a report for Congress that includes 20 or more of the most serious problems taxpayers face when dealing with the agency. This year, the usual two-volume report grew to three, with the addition of “literature reviews” in areas ranging from taxpayer service in other countries to behavioral science lessons for taxpayer compliance.