Ulterior motives

The purpose of the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is to “…ensure that every taxpayer is treated fairly and that you understand your rights.”

TAS issued a report issuing its concern about the IRS. “Taxpayer Warns Of Tax Refund Delays…”, accounting today.com, 12 Jan 22. Facts from last year: 6 million unprocessed tax returns; 2.3 million amended tax returns; 2 million unprocessed employer’s quarterly tax returns; 5 million pieces of taxpayer correspondence. Delays are expected to be similar or worse this year with the processing of tax returns.

Barry Melancon, president of American Society Of Certified Public Accountants says that IRS “…stopped short of providing any measures they intend to implement to mitigate the expected challenges.” Melancon believes the IRS should “…halt its compliance actions such as liens and levies… [and] “…provide taxpayers with target relief from underpayment and late-payment penalties…” “Practitioners Wary Of IRS Service Lapses…” Jan 2022.

The National Association of Tax Professionals, National Association of Black Accountants and the National Association of Enrolled Agents issued their concerns: “...Consequently, the IRS sends numerous mistargeted notices, liens and levies. Additionally, the IRS is only answering 9% of all calls… which prevents taxpayers from resolving these straightforward issues.” “Practitioner Coalition Urges IRS To Step Up…” accounting today, Jan 2022. I agree with my fellow accountants/tax practitioners.

TAS gives credit to the IRS in issuing “…478 million stimulus payments totaling $812 billion [and] …sent Advance Child Tax Credit payments to over 36 million ($93 billion).” Since 2010, the Republican Party has limited funding to the IRS: “[t]he imbalance between the IRS’s workload and its resources has never been greater.

Due to not enough funding, the “…IRS’s workforce has shrunk by 17% while its workload… has increased 19%. Biden wants to increase IRS funding. Republicans oppose because the IRS would catch wealthy taxpayers. Vincent White

Lancaster