every year, the taxpayer advocate service, an independent agency within the internal revenue service, issues a report to congress on the 20 most serious problems taxpayers face in trying to fulfill their patriotic duty to fund their nation.
taxpayer advocate nina e. olson, who just this year announced her retirement from the agency, notes that identifying the 20 problems that are most serious is not objectively possible or even desirable. sometimes, for example, the problems are the same as those of previous years, so the legislated mandate allows for subjective decisions about what to include.