practitioner orgs say “yes!”
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
the internal revenue service has less than six months to provide congress with a comprehensive strategy for providing taxpayers with better service. the report, due july 1, is mandated by the taxpayer first act of 2019.
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the irs is already hammering out a strategy on several fronts – enforcement, technology, modernization, training, cybersecurity, overall structure and organization, and, yes, taxpayer experience.
oddly enough, there’s nothing on the table to specifically assist the tax preparers who bear the brunt of filing anything more complicated than the basic 1040.
ten stakeholders in the tax-paying process, including several professional organizations and large cpa firms, think the irs needs to broaden the comprehensiveness of its strategy. their suggestion: a new practitioner services division.
the idea makes sense
in a joint letter to assistant secretary for tax policy david j. kautter and irs commissioner charles p. rettig, the 10 stakeholder organizations urge the service to “enhance its relationship with the practitioner community.”
the letter states, “without a dedicated ‘executive-level’ practitioners services division that can participate in the design of key practitioner-impacting policies and programs, the irs will not achieve the success it desires with the tax preparer community.”
the idea makes sense. for the over 80 million americans who depend on tax preparers, practitioners are as close as most taxpayers get to the irs. the actual interactions with the irs – from schedules to advice to decisions to headaches – take place, directly or indirectly, through a professional. if the irs can provide better service to tax preparers, tax preparers can provide better service to taxpayers.
the letter lays out four “at a minimum” functions of the proposed division:
- engage with the tax professional community
- ensure practitioner feedback is acted upon through a liaison with all major operating divisions
- maintain robust practitioner hotlines
- provide an online tax professional account
among the signers of the letter is the american institute of cpas. barry melancon, ceo, tells 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 that “a practitioner services division would fully leverage the vital role of practitioners in tax administration. stakeholders from across the profesion agree that establishing a practitioner services division will significantly benefit practitioners and taxpayers alike. we hope to see progress on this initiative as the irs moves forward with its modernization plans.”
one of the irs’s most serious problems
the taxpayers advocate service, an independent watchdog division within the irs, has identified the need for a revised customer service strategy as one of the irs’s most serious problems. acting taxpayer advocate bridget t. roberts’s annual report to congress 2019 doesn’t specifically call for a dedicated practitioner services division, but it says “… the development of a comprehensive return preparer strategy is long overdue. as the irs works to develop a comprehensive taxpayer service strategy, it is critical that the needs of return preparers are included in this effort.”
in 2019, the irs small business/self-employed operating division led a cross-functional effort to develop a coordinated servicewide preparer strategy. but the resulting strategy focused on little more than misconduct issues. the tas suggests that a truly comprehensive strategy should
- emphasize the taxpayer’s right to retain representation,
- encourage return preparer competence,
- address the current lack of transparency in preparer fees,
- incorporate a comprehensive taxpayer education campaign,
- restrict access to online taxpayer information to only preparers over whom the irs has oversight and
- track preparer noncompliance by type of preparer.
the taxpayer first act makes the most significant changes to irs administration since the irs restructuring and reform act of 1998. among its many changes to administration are:
- an independent office of appeals
- annual training of irs employees on taxpayer rights
- codification of the volunteer income tax assistance grant program
- authorization of the irs to work with financial institutions to identify misdirected funds
- safeguards to prevent identity theft
- authorization for irs to recommend a specific low income taxpayer clinic
- prevention of certain low-income taxpayer accounts being assigned to private debt collectors