On Tuesday, July 15, 2015, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson released her mid-year report to Congress. The report identifies the priority issues the Tax Payer Advocate Service (“TAS”) will address during the upcoming fiscal year. In addition to recapping the 2015 filing season, the report discusses the IRS’s long-term strategic planning, tax-related identity theft, and the administration of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Nine other areas of focus are included in the report, including the TAS’s efforts to improve its advocacy for and service to taxpayers, pending TAS research initiatives, and an update on the TAS’s efforts to implement an integrated technology system. Volume 2 of the report contains the IRS’s responses to the administrative recommendations the National Taxpayer Advocate made in her 2014 Annual Report to Congress, along with additional TAS comments.
The National Taxpayer Advocate is required by statute to submit two annual reports to the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance. The statute requires these reports to be submitted directly to the Committees without any prior review or comment from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the Secretary of the Treasury, the IRS Oversight Board, any other officer or employee of the Department of the Treasury, or the Office of Management and Budget. The first report must identify the objectives of the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate for the fiscal year beginning in that calendar year. The second report must identify at least 20 of the most serious problems encountered by taxpayers, discuss the ten tax issues most frequently litigated in the courts, and make administrative and legislative recommendations to resolve taxpayer problems.
For more detailed information on the Report, as well as a link to the full Report, please click here
