Who’s agitating for the taxpayer inside the Internal Revenue Service? Meet Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate. While she works within the IRS, she reports by law only to Congress “with no prior review or comment from the (IRS) Commissioner . . . (or) Secretary of the Treasury.”
On June 28, Olson sent her mid-year 2017 report about the tax-collecting agency to Congress. It gives her view of the recent 2017 filing season for taxes and singles out issues for her Taxpayer Advocate Service to take on during the coming year. We can’t cover it all, but here are some highlights of the 2018 Objectives Report to Congress:
2017 Filing Season
- Most taxpayers who filed returns without contacting IRS had no problems. But results were “mixed” for taxpayers who had to phone or write in for help.
- IRS answered 79 percent of calls for assistance filing returns. Taxpayers typically spent 6.5 minutes on hold, an improvement from 11.1 minutes the prior year. (IRS receives more than 100 million toll-free calls.) Olson found that increased performance praiseworthy.
- But IRS answered only 40 percent of calls to the compliance lines, which arrange installment payments, etc. Taxpayers who did get through had to wait a “staggering” 47 minutes, the report said.
- IRS processed 130 million returns; 90 percent of them were filed electronically. Seventy-five percent yielded refunds, with the average at $2,763.
- Olson criticized a new IRS requirement for appointments at its 376 Taxpayer Assistance Centers. The centers used to be open for “walk-in” clients but now are “appointment only.”
Selected Priority Issues
- Scrounging up delinquent taxes: The IRS began using private agencies to collect overdue taxes beginning this spring. After reviewing collections so far, Olson’s office wants the IRS to stop referring low- income taxpayers receiving Social Security to those private collection agencies instead of working with the accounts through more lenient IRS channels.
- Passport denials: By law, the IRS must certify that passport applicants don’t owe substantial amounts of delinquent taxes to the government. The Taxpayer Advocate wants the IRS to send advance notice to applicants if the agency intends to reject the certification, which effectively could deny a passport. That’s not done now.
- Advantages and disadvantages of IRS emphasis on online taxpayer accounts
- IRS policies regarding tax levies made on retirement accounts.
- Taxpayer problems in reporting insurance under requirements of the Affordable Care Act. The IRS has “made progress” but the ACA and its premium tax credits remain troublesome for Olson.
Last year, the National Taxpayer Advocate made 93 recommendations in its year-end report. The IRS agreed to 35 of them, or 38 percent, according to an agency release.