including a 6-point strategic plan.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
chuck rettig has been commissioner of the internal revenue service for just over a year, but he has behind him 36 years of experience as a tax professional.
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that experience includes the experience of trying to get answers out of the irs, waiting on hold, struggling to make sense of tens of thousands of pages of tax rules and rulings, and dealing with mid-season pronouncements. he knows how it is.
he knows how it is inside the irs, too. in his first year on the job, he had to implement the tax cuts and jobs act that went into effect on the heels of last year’s government shutdown, which happened to hit just as the tax season was getting under way. it wasn’t an easy year for the irs or the nation’s tax preparers, but somehow the taxes got collected and the nation is still a going concern.
this year, rettig has a chance – and a mandate – to do something about irs performance. the taxpayer first act, signed into law on july 1, 2019, requires the irs to submit to congress, by the end of fy 2020, a comprehensive proposal to redesign the organization to better support america’s taxpayers.
officially, the service hasn’t been redesigned since the restructuring and reform act of 1998. in reality, however, the agency has been suffering a continuous and perpetual restructuring necessitated by budget cuts. information systems have become precariously obsolete, taxpayer assistance centers have been shuttered, scams have proliferated and staff levels have been slashed. between 2010 and 2019, the irs lost more than 29,618 full-time employees.
78,000 ambassadors
today, the irs has 78,000 employees – or, as rettig calls them, “irs ambassadors” – including 12,600 temporary and seasonal ambassadors. they have to handle 255 million federal tax returns and forms that generate $3.6 trillion in tax revenues. enforcement collection reached $57.5 billion in fy 2019.
in the next five years, up to 31 percent of irs employees are likely to retire. that’s almost 20,000 professionals taking decades of experience and knowledge out the door – a huge loss that newer, younger staff will be hard put to replace.
so the irs has every need to restructure. it needs up-to-snuff technology. it needs staff reoriented to work within budgetary constraints. it needs to make enforcement credible. it needs to deal with a hyperdynamic economy.
six goals
while the need to restructure is dire, the current deficiencies are also future opportunities, the proverbial empty glass that can be filled. now is the time, and here is the irs’s 2018-2022 strategic plan, presented as six general goals:
- empower and enable all taxpayers to meet their tax obligations.
- protect the integrity of the tax system by encouraging compliance through administering and enforcing the tax code.
- collaborate with external partners proactively to improve tax administration.
- cultivate a well-equipped, diverse, flexible and engaged workforce.
- advance data access, usability and analytics to inform decision-making and improve operational outcomes.
- drive increased agility, efficiency, effectiveness and security in irs operations.
these are lofty goals – obvious to think up, easy to wish for. but attaining them will require conceptual understanding, long-range planning, well-coordinated effort, creative thinking and, certainly, money. chuck rettig has 36 years of private sector service behind him and one year of very challenging public service ahead of him. his efforts will impact every cpa and tax-prep office in the nation.
7 responses to “irs undertakes overhaul”
alice wright
the irs is making a lot of technological changes around its work process. mr. chuk rettig is just the right person to be the face of the irs, he is great at delivering speeches and as a communication point between the common citizen and the designated authority. even though mr. rettig is promoting the extensive use of the practitioner’s helpline, i think it could use some improvements still. it fails to give flawless service and lacks information sometimes.
honestyandrealityguy
having worked for the irs 3 years, then as a tax cpa in public practice for 33 years, i have simple observations. the irs computer technology must be current. their people need to be trained (i miss the time when the old guys knew the tax law. finally, enhanced people skills are a plus. new “chip on their shoulders auditors” have always been a norm. it is how their experiences can help them grow and understand the system and getting along with the good people.
richard conboy, mba, ea
with rettig’s 36 years of experience, at least when he has to do something stupid because the bureaucracy demands it, he will know it is stupid as we, of course, will to.
gerald s cohen, cpa
i’ve also heard commissioner rettig speak. he had emphasized better telephone communication and information sharing with tax professionals, which may be what he means by tax administration with external partners. this is my major problem. the practitioner hotline, although very helpful, does not always have access to all collection information/status or can not provide the status of issues currently in fast track appeals. they are forced to provide practitioner’s with other #’s to call. providing this excellent group with more access to information, would speed up collections and move the process forward faster.
also, written responses from collections are often vague and not timely, and phone #’s provided in the notices to get more detail information or discuss the matters at hand are useless because of wait times, and often do not provide the name of the specific individual who actually worked your case. only the name of the operations manager is provided, at least in the holtsville service center. telephone extensions and email addresses would be a tremendous help..
bottom line is, better lines of communication with practitioners would make evey one’s life easier.
gerald s. cohen, cpa
516 455-0643
gary schroeder
having been to several tax seminar’s where mr. rettig spoke, i believe he does desire to make “it better”. he does not have a defensive approach, but identification of the issues and solve them. points 1 and 3 should be able to accomplish. the second takes the “leadership by example” in the congress. that may be tough. the 4th point will require “leadership by example” within the irs. again, it will take some time, but it can be done. the 5th and 6th points are something every operation has to deal with today. one point that is beyond the scope of the irs is to tax the tax system out of administering welfare programs. this to me is the most important objective. no operation that really wants to evaluate their results can have both under one organization. until these two functions can be separated, the results will not ever be truly known.
good luck. we all win if this is accomplished.
les orr
gary schroeder – please help us out, here.
“one point that is beyond the scope of the irs is to tax the tax system out of administering welfare programs.”
what ‘welfare programs’ does the irs administer?
thanks.
cathy a
the main “welfare program” the irs administrates is the earned income credit. that alone is the biggest joke around and has been for decades. many of the people that get the eic know exactly how much they should make in a year. they watch their paychecks and will only work part-time. everything else they make is “under the table”. they also know where to go to have their taxes done. ask any of the national franchises how many thousands of eic’s they do. that is because they simply ask “yes” and “no” questions. if you know how to answer the questions correctly you win!!!! the irs and government help perpetuate these crimes! don’t get me wrong, there are people out there that really do benefit from the eic, but there are much better ways of providing for them. besides, if they are getting thousands from the government each year, there should be some community service work they could do for it. or mandatorily required to go to school for a trade.