Don't Mess With Taxes

The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Finance Committee want to end, or at least reduce, taxpayer reactions like the one above. The bipartisan pair wants your comments on their proposed Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act by the end of March.
  

The Internal Revenue Service and Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) are both dealing with outside forces this filing season.

The IRS continues to be in Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) crosshairs. Meanwhile, the Trump administration wants to cut more than 20 percent of the staff at TAS, an independent component of the tax agency that was created to help taxpayers who are facing hardships because of IRS actions.

While all this fiscal and political posturing plays out, some in Congress — remember those folks on Capitol Hill? — have proposed a way to improve IRS procedures and administration.

Discussion draft approach: Senate Finance Committee Chair Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Ranking Member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) released the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act as a discussion draft in late January, just as the 2025 tax filing season started.

The pair described their document as “making an array of common-sense fixes” that will improve the taxpayer experience.

Crapo and Wyden note that proposals in their IRS improvement proposal largely reflect nonpartisan legislative measures recommended by the National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA), as well as standalone tax administrative bills introduced by members of Congress.

"This bipartisan draft bill, several years in the making, would significantly strengthen taxpayer rights in nearly every facet of tax administration,” said NTA Erin Collins when the proposal was released.

Public, tax community comment wanted: Collins also back then encouraged taxpayers and the tax professional community to review the draft Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act and provide feedback to refine it.

Of course, since then filing season has been progressing and much of the focus on the IRS has been on attempts to weaken Uncle Sam’s tax collection agency.

And if anyone looked at the Crapo/Wyden IRS improvement proposal back in January, they might have by now forgotten about it.

But the two Senators would like feedback by March 31. Comments can be sent via email to [email protected].

Shouting out IRS improvement ideas: So, as we enter the last few weeks of filing season, I’m using this weekend’s Saturday Shout Outs to remind us all of the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act and comment deadline.

First up is the proposal itself. You can peruse the yet-to-be-filed legislative language. Or, my preference, a plainer-English section-by-section breakout of the discussion draft.

Not surprisingly, the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), jumped right on the proposal. “The AICPA said it supports the bipartisan Taxpayer Assistance and Service (TAS) Act discussion draft…and especially backs 13 of the 65 provisions designed to reduce burdens on taxpayers and tax preparers,” wrote Martha Waggoner in her The Tax Adviser article AICPA supports Senate discussion draft to help taxpayers, preparers.

A group of attorneys in the tax department of Proskauer Rose LLP offer their Tax Talks analysis Senators Crapo and Wyden Release Draft Bipartisan Taxpayer Rights Legislation.

Another legal view comes from Baker Botts LLP tax attorneys who get more specific in Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act – Tax Controversy Perspective.

And we return to the National Taxpayer Advocate to wrap up this weekend’s shout outs. In her most recent NTA Blog post, Collins says, Proposed TAS Act Provision to Allow Taxpayers to Bring Refund Suits in the Tax Court Will Be a Game-Changer For Taxpayers.

Again, if you’re interested in commenting on the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act, Crapo and Wyden want to hear from you. Tell them what you think, by March 31, by emailing your thoughts to [email protected].

Proposal’s future murky: Will the bill be introduced? Will any of its proposals make it through Congress and into law? At this point, that seems unlikely.

Congress, for the most part, is divided on what its members think of and want to do in connection with proposals by Donald J. Trump and his DOGE pal Elon Musk that affect not just the IRS but every other federal agency.

When it comes specifically to taxes, lawmakers also are more focused on the expiring Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions.

Plus, the IRS doesn’t even have an official commissioner, and there’s no word on when Trump’s pick, former Rep. Billy Long, will go through the confirmation process.

Still, I applaud Crapo, Wyden, and Collins on their continuing efforts to improve the IRS and how we taxpayers interact with the agency. When things calm down in Washington, D.C., maybe we can get back to that task.

You also might find these items of interest:

• Proposed IRS layoffs could cost U.S. $2.4 trillion
• TIGTA celebrating 25 years of keeping an eye on the IRS
• NTA urges Congress to ease scam victims' tax burdens, simplify EITC, change estimated tax deadlines (and more)

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