TAS office closure updates

Some Taxpayer Advocate Service offices are temporarily closed due to the effects of Hurricane Maria. The Puerto Rico office is currently closed for business due to Hurricane Maria. We will update our site as our offices reopen. The Taxpayer Advocate Service Florida offices are open for business, however we ask for your patience as our employees return to their offices. Here is information for v...

TAS office closures affected by Hurricane Irma

Some Taxpayer Advocate Service offices were temporarily closed due to the effects of Hurricane Irma. As of Monday, September 18, 2017, all TAS offices in Florida are currently open for business. Here is information for victims of Hurricane Irma https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/help-for-victims-of-hurricane-irma....

Installment Agreements (IAs): TAS Study Finds Taxpayers Enter IAs They Cannot Afford

In this and next week’s blog, I will discuss my recent Most Serious Problem on Installment Agreements (IAs) and the corresponding Research Study that was published in my 2016 Annual Report to Congress. Today I will focus my concerns on IAs and discuss the results of the study; in next week’s posting, I’ll review the recommendations my office made to address the pro...

The IRS’s Position in Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Commissioner Raises Concerns About the IRS’s Commitment to Taxpayer Rights

About this time every year, my wonderful staff of attorney-advisors presents me with early drafts of the discussion of the ten most litigated issues in federal courts that are ultimately published in the National Taxpayer Advocate’s Annual Report to Congress. Editing these drafts is one of my favorite tasks, because I get to review in a concentrated fashion a significant swath of tax ...

Success Story: TAS helps taxpayer meet closing deadline

Every year the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) helps thousands of people with tax problems. This story is only one of many examples of how TAS helps resolve taxpayer issues. All personal details are removed to protect the privacy of the taxpayer. TAS received a call from a taxpayer who was frantic and nearly in tears. All of the taxpayer's plans for a new home were about to go astray, although ...

Federal Payment Levy Program: The New IRS Automated Levies on Military Retirement Payments May Be Harming Veterans Experiencing Economic Hardship (Part II)

In last week’s blog, I described the Federal Payment Levy Program (FPLP) and outlined my general concerns about the IRS’s implementation of the “Low Income Filter” (LIF) and lack of person-to-person assistance. In this blog post, I discuss my concerns about the IRS’s decision to extend the FPLP to military pensioners.  The IRS based its...

Federal Payment Levy Program: The New IRS Automated Levies on Military Retirement Payments May Be Harming Veterans Experiencing Economic Hardship

Over the years, I and my staff have written and advocated extensively about our concerns with the IRS’s implementation of the Federal Payment Levy Program (FPLP). My concerns are amplified by a recent IRS change in policy regarding adding military retirement payments as a payment stream to FPLP. In this blog post, I will provide relevant background on the issue. In the second part of ...

Private Debt Collection Program - What You Need to Know

  The Internal Revenue Service recently implemented a new private debt collection program and will assign certain overdue federal tax debts to private collection agencies (PCAs). Posted on this site are some questions and answers about the program, along with a link to a sample letter you can use to tell a PCA to stop contacting you. There is also a link to the National Taxpayer Advo...

Correctible Error Authority Part 2: Why Correctible Error Authority Creates More Problems Than It Resolves

In my last blog, I discussed my concerns about the IRS’s current use of math and clerical error authority under IRC §§ 6213 (b) and (g). This week, I’ll take a closer look at the proposal to expand math error authority to “correctible errors,” and explain why I think Congress should not grant such expansion in two of the three instances....

Why Correctible Error Authority Raises Significant Taxpayer Rights Concerns – Part 1

People occasionally ask me which areas of tax administration worry me the most. There is certainly no shortage of candidates, but if I had to narrow it down, the IRS’s math and clerical error authority under IRC § 6213(b) and (g) would be right up there at the top of the list, along with the IRS correspondence examination program. In fact, I expressed my con...