Chaos, pure and simple, surrounds the present and future of the Internal Revenue Service. However, this post isn’t meant to spark any political debate, but rather true discourse over what tax and accounting professionals believe an ideal IRS could be.
Granted, I sit on the sidelines; I observe and comment. I’m not on the phone for hours with clients or with the Service itself, with the Taxpayer Advocate’s office, or trying to fax documents that may or may not be seen by the proper personnel to impact my client’s situation. But I hear you every day, tax professionals near the end of their sanity, year in and year out, voicing their frustrations and dissatisfactions with the IRS and their interactions therein.
Does this mean it needs to be completely removed from public life? Or would you see a proper investment and fresh ideas to improve how it is run from the ground up? Re-imagined, if you will, in the image of those who deal with it the most: tax and accounting professionals.
So, this is why I am asking you not what is wrong or any political line on its future. But rather, I’d like to know if you were handed a blank slate, what would be the best version of the Service for you and the public in general? How would it function in an ideal world? Moreover, what is possible and not just a pipedream?
Or perhaps get more realistic given its current state and see what could be done, even over time, to make it what it needs to be. I have a comment section here, but you can also find me on LinkedIn and message me. I could even see making a podcast out of your responses for those brave/willing enough to go on record about it.
Ultimately, like you, my passion is to serve. I want to see this great profession move forward, and engaging in real discourse about how things need to change or evolve serves that purpose. I sincerely hope we can do that because, clearly for the IRS, its time to evolve is long overdue, and perhaps it just needs to start with a vision and not rhetoric or debate. That is my wish. I look forward to hearing your views, no matter what they are.
First, new updated computer systems and top of the line software developers.
Second, additional development for taxpayers to get information and resolve problems online without calling or using a fax machine.
Third, appropriate staffing as needed after infrastructure up to date
Fourth, if possible, a liaison between tax preparers, congress and the IRS
I agree with Brenda Canon’s four points – enough staff, up to date tech and websites would be glorious. A liason office sort of like the ombudsman office in Canada would be nice too. I would add the following.
1) Make it so that all returns can be efiled (1040NR’s can not presently) and make it so that tax preparers outside the country can e-file for their clients (as a Canadian citizen in Canada that prepares US returns for clients I must paper file everything…it’s a major pain).
2) Make it so that tax preparers outside the country can get access to the clients online files (pretty sure US preparers can do this already but I can’t as a Canadian citizen) as this would solve so many problems.
3) Train the IRS agents to be helpful. Currently when I call them to ask how a specific point should be treated I get told to go ask a tax preparer more often than not despite the fact that I have been preparing US returns for 25 years. I am not stupid or ignorant and I know how to do research but the front line phone reps (most of them anyway) treat me like I am and haven’t tried to do any research on my own. CRA phone agents are waay more helpful and if they don’t know the answer (frequently the front line reps don’t with the kinds of questions I have) you can ask to be passed to a supervisor conversant in xyz area and they will do so cheerfully. The IRS agents stonewall you the vast majority of the time.
4) Scrap the whole thou shalt file your tax return within three years of the deadline or you won’t get your refund that you are entitled to. Often US citizens outside the country don’t realize they are even supposed to be filing US returns and when there are refunds that apply to them like refundable child credits or the Covid stimulus payments that you can get by filing a tax return and by the time they come to me they are past the deadline so there is no point in filing anything anyway. The CRA will issue refunds automatically up to 10 years past the filing deadline and will do it later than that at their discretion if you give them a good convincing sob story as to why they should for this particular tax payer.
5) Rewrite all the IRS tax brochures that only lawyers can understand. I have a hard time understanding them sometimes and I have been reading them for 25 years. The CRA brochures are helpful, written in plain English and not lawyer speak, and provide lots of examples. Normal Canadian taxpayers can read and understand them. I would never send a US taxpayer looking for more detailed information to the IRS brochures as they are largely incomprehensible to the average taxpayer.
These are my main sticking points at the moment with the IRS