(you may say she’s a dreamer, but she’s not the only one.)
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
one word keeps popping up in national tax advocate erin m. collins’s introduction to her annual objectives report to congress.
the word is “imagine,” and collins’s dream depicts an irs that is a only bit more feasible than john lennon’s dream of a world with no countries or religion.
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but you can still sing along …
“imagine a taxpayer or a representative receiving a text message
… or email referring the taxpayer to their online account,
… seeing an alert, opening a notice,
… then uploading and responding to the notice,” collins croons.
“imagine a taxpayer or representative seeing copies of their tax returns,
… participating in online chats with csrs to clarify inquiries,
… checking an outstanding balance, making a payment,
… and providing bank data for deposits or payments.”
imagine…
ok, maybe not so easy to sing, but still … imagine:
- “… creating efficiencies by scanning all paper-filed returns and documents into a format from which the irs can extract data and permanently removing the word ‘backlog’ from the irs’s vocabulary.”
- “… how tax administration would improve if the irs provided taxpayers with early guidance and correspondence in plain language that is simple to understand and easy to follow.”
- “… tools such as where’s my refund? and where’s my amended return? provid[ing] complete and up-to-date information about processing delays, action items and refund status.”
- “… the irs resolved taxpayer issues in days or weeks rather than months or years.”
- “… a taxpayer could call the irs to resolve a problem and speak with a csr who has access to all relevant information on their computer screen and who generally can resolve the problem during the first phone call or connect the taxpayer to someone who can assist.”
… it’s easy if you try.
transformation
these aren’t just pipe dreams wafting from the windows of the taxpayer advocate service. they are solid objectives, and collins says they are achievable.
“these objectives may not seem ambitious,” collins writes, “particularly since many financial institutions have been providing this level of service for years. but they would absolutely be transformational for the irs.”
that word – transformational – appears no fewer than eight times in the report. collins says that the funding made available through the inflation reduction act makes transformational change possible, but it hasn’t happened yet.
hiring itself is not transformational
collins notes the improved phone service on at least some toll-free lines and the hiring of thousands of customer service representatives, but she says that “more hiring in and of itself is not transformational.”
“when i look back eight years from now on how the irs spent its inflation reduction act funding,” collins says, “the changes i consider ‘transformational’ will primarily involve the deployment of new technology and innovative thinking.”
one of the big technological improvements she calls for wouldn’t be hard at all: scanning virtually all incoming tax returns, forms and correspondence.
a little harder but more feasible than a dream: giving a csr instant access to all of a given taxpayer’s information, from returns to notices to correspondence to decisions and process status.
now imagine this: the irs is still using a computer system that was installed when the cutting-edge beatles song was “i wanna hold your hand.” it still uses assembly language and cobol.
that may be hard to imagine, but it’s true. it may be easier to imagine a well funded irs transforming itself into an organization worthy of the 21st century.
imagine … it isn’t hard if you try.