Helping hand photo by Lalesh Aldarwish via Pexels.com I'm a big fan of the Taxpayer Advocate Service. Part of that, as long-time readers know, is because I was fortunate enough to serve on the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP), a volunteer group created to help the Internal Revenue Service meet and improve on the promise of the final word in the agency's name. My years with TAP let me see how TAS and the IRS work to help solve taxpayer problems. And yes, the people committed to this process really do care and do all they can to help taxpayers within... Read more →
Taxpayer Advocacy-TIGTA
The National Taxpayer Advocate’s midyear report to Congress that was released on June 25 included, among other things, recommendations that the Internal Revenue Service continue its efforts to expand digital tax transactions and make them easier for taxpayers to use. Such technological tax advances are also are of keen interest to the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC). The federal advisory committee was established by Congress as part of 1998's IRS Restructuring and Reform Act. And on the same day this week that the Taxpayer Advocate’s report was issued, ETAAC released its annual report to Congress. ETAAC’s primary goal when... Read more →
The National Taxpayer Advocate’s latest report to Congress urges the Internal Revenue Service to continue its technology upgrades to meet coming challenges, with the top priority being enhanced taxpayer online account options. (Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash) Despite what you may have heard from the Trump administration and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Internal Revenue Service has been doing a pretty good job. “Since the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions, the IRS has rebounded to provide much improved taxpayer service,” notes National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins in her introduction to her midyear report to Congress, Fiscal Year 2026 Objectives... Read more →
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, or TIGTA, the independent Internal Revenue Service watchdog, issues a report to Congress twice a year. Its latest information download to lawmakers was released on June 2, on the heels of the tax agency’s own assessment. The IRS Data Book is, understandably, designed to highlight the agency’s successes. TIGTA’s Semiannual Report to Congress takes a broader view of IRS activities. Reading both can provide a more balanced evaluation of where the IRS is doing well, improving, or needs to step up its efforts. As you would expected, the TIGTA’s report also is full... Read more →
Photo by Tara Winstead Even before Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff started messing around in government agencies, one targeted for overhaul already was making changes to improve its operations. In fact, the Internal Revenue Service was proactively using artificial intelligence (AI) before the first Trump administration’s executive order in December 2020 “Promoting the Use of Trustworthy AI in the Federal Government.” “Artificial intelligence (AI) is a transformative technology that holds substantial promise for improving the IRS’s examination efforts,” notes the report on its introductory page. And with added funding from the Biden Administration's Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, TIGTA... Read more →
Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán If you’ve had questions about exactly what Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) personnel have and are doing at the Internal Revenue Service, you are not alone. And now we may get some answers. Pro Publica reports that a Treasury Department inspector general is probing efforts by Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE to obtain private taxpayer data and other sensitive information. The nonprofit investigative newsroom says it reviewed internal communications that show Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) requested wide-ranging information from IRS employees in a mid-April email. “In particular, the office is seeking... Read more →
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... Read more →
Photo by Ksenia Chernaya While Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) personnel are looking for Social Security benefits they believe were fraudulently sent to very old, probably deceased individuals, Uncle Sam’s official tax watchdog has a different take. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) recently examined situations where Uncle Sam owes taxpayers who passed away. TIGTA found, in its report 2025-IE-R12 issued March 12, that “Improvements Are Required to Promptly Validate and Issue Manual Refunds Associated With Deceased Taxpayers.” Overall, TIGTA’s analysis found that in the more than 440,000 final filings it reviewed, survivors were owed a total of... Read more →
Regular readers of the ol' blog noticed last week that I mentioned tax scams and identity theft in a couple of post last week. If you missed them, they were on added Internal Revenue Service efforts this filing season to detect tax scams and return fraud and about how filing early helps beat tax ID thieves to the stolen refund punch. Well, here’s a third mention. And this time, it’s some good news from the National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA). The IRS is making progress in reducing the time it takes to help people who are victims of tax-related identity theft.... Read more →
Millions are getting ready to file federal tax returns so they can collect refunds. Crooks are among them. And things get even worse for the taxpayers whose identities were stolen and used to file false returns claiming fraudulent refunds. The average time it took the Internal Revenue Service to resolve identity theft cases and issue refunds to the affected victims in fiscal year 2024 was two years, according the National Taxpayer Advocate’s 2024 annual report to Congress, issued today. These delays impacted nearly half a million taxpayers, noted National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) Erin M. Collins, and were even worse than... Read more →
Life is tough for lots of people. Unfortunately, that’s true even during, or because of, the holiday season. But caring people still exist. They donate dollars and, more importantly in many cases, their time to help those in need. That’s true in the tax world, too. It’s no secret that Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs provide free help to many who need personal assistance, but can’t afford to pay a tax professional, to fill out and file their annual returns. Then there are those who offer similar free aid to those who... Read more →
Photo by Pixabay I know it’s early December and you're already frazzled. Oh, wait. Maybe that’s just me. Even if you are a bit swamped like me, but still think you can make room for one more thing (I'm jealous!), the Internal Revenue Service wants to hear from you. Specifically, the tax agency is seeking new members for the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC). And actually, you don’t have to decide right now. (Whew!) The IRS is accepting applications through Jan. 31, 2025. Even better for those who need to clear some items from their current to-do lists and/or... Read more →
The anniversary comes as the Internal Revenue Service watchdog is awaiting confirmation of a new leader. The Internal Revenue Service is a perpetual target. Some want to eliminate it. Others want to add to its operations. Both of these groups often rely on data provided by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, or TIGTA, in making their divergent arguments. TIGTA was created as part of the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act or 1998 (RRA 98). The following year, TIGTA began carrying out its mandate to provide independent oversight of IRS activities. Now, the IRS watchdog is commemorating... Read more →
Since the Supreme Court in 2018 let states allow betting on college sports, sportsbook activity, like this in a Las Vegas casino, has pick up substantially. (Photo by Kay Bell) College and professional sports dominate screens right now. And sports wagering has increased annually since the Supreme Court of the United States in 2018 opened the door for states to allow sports betting on collegiate competitions. The high court’s move also made it possible for the Internal Revenue Service to collect on winning bets placed at legal sportsbooks. For the most part, those operations report the amounts that went into... Read more →
If only online privacy was as easy as posting a sign. (Photo by Connor Danylenko) Do you look at your overflowing email box (OK, maybe that’s just me) and wonder why in the heck am I getting all this unsolicited crap? It’s probably because you checked, or didn’t check, a box when you went to some website. You either directly or implicitly consented to let that site pass along your email to “partners” who are now inundating you with unwanted email. That’s a tax issue, too, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). In a just released... Read more →
As the Internal Revenue Service increases its electronic interactions with taxpayers, a volunteer advisory committee is going to have a lot more on its agenda. The IRS Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee, or ETAAC, serves as a public forum for discussing electronic tax administration issues. Created as part of the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, the committee's main objective in the beginning was to encourage paperless filing of tax and information returns. As everyone’s lives, including our taxes, have become more electronic, ETAAC’s focus widened. In its annual report to Congress, ETAAC researches, analyzes, considers, and makes recommendations... Read more →
The Internal Revenue Service’s long-standing goal of regulating noncredentialed tax preparers got some support from the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee’s (ETAAC) 2024 annual report. Such oversight is one of a dozen recommendations in the latest ETAAC document, released June 26. It is one of three suggestions the panel directed to Congress; the remaining nine ETAAC recommendations are for the IRS. ETAAC goals: ETAAC is a volunteer panel established by Congress in 1988 to provide public input into the development and implementation of the IRS organizational strategy for, as the name says, electronic tax administration. To that end, ETAAC researches,... Read more →
Unsplash+ in collaboration with Kateryna Hliznitsova One of the biggest, most persistent complaints about the Internal Revenue Service is the agency’s service, or lack thereof, in answering taxpayer phone calls. The IRS has improved in this area, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate’s midyear report to Congress released today. The Treasury Department and the IRS established the Accounts Management (AM) Customer Service Representative Level of Service (LOS) standard to measure taxpayer service. For the past two filing seasons, notes National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) Erin M. Collins in her report, the Treasury/IRS LOS goal of at least 85 percent was met.... Read more →
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash Waiting on your Internal Revenue Service tax refund is frustrating. In most instances, though, the issues that slowed the tax refund are resolved and the money is issued in a relatively reasonable amount of time. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for the hundreds of thousands of filers whose personal information was used by identity thieves trying to intercept the real taxpayers’ refunds. Not only must they go through the process of alerting the IRS of the stolen identity and fraudulent refund claim, their wait for their rightful refunds takes much, much longer. In some... Read more →
This is the Internal Revenue Service’s fourth and final Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC) Saturday opening in 2024. IRS reps will be accepting walk-in help requests at 59 TACs in 30 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. Photo by Tim Douglas The Internal Revenue Service is offering taxpayers in 32 jurisdictions one more chance this year to get help at a Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC) without having to make an appointment. The agency’s final Saturday walk-in is tomorrow, May 18. At the select TACs — 59 total — across the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, you can... Read more →
A fourth, and final, Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC) Saturday opening is set for May 18. Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash The third round of special Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC) Saturday openings is this weekend, April 13. But don't let the date confuse you. Just because Internal Revenue Service reps will be available to help taxpayers who live near the TACs open across the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico on April 13 doesn't mean the tax agency staff will help filers complete 2023 tax returns (or extension requests) due on Monday, April 15. They won't. These... Read more →