Feeling Taxed by the IRS?
Introducing the Taxpayer Advocate Service
Have you ever received a notice from the IRS about your tax filing and felt confused, or tried to call and experienced issues getting through? Have you or someone you know encountered tax issues that were not able to be resolved through the IRS?
Today, I’m introducing the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), an independent organization within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The objective of TAS is to serve as an internal advocate for taxpayers. They provide free support services to taxpayers experiencing significant issues with the IRS and also advocate for systemic improvements at the IRS and within the nation’s tax laws. Read more about TAS services on the website’s About page.
Determining Eligibility for TAS Services and Getting Help
Here is a qualifier tool that explains the type of cases that TAS can help with and helps you determine if your situation qualifies for their assistance. You can also click on the “Get Help” tab on the TAS homepage, select the topic that applies to you, and review the tools and advice TAS provides on that topic (also see the “Resources for Taxpayers” tab to get information about tax advice, Low-Income Taxpayer Clinics, free tax assistance, and other support networks).
There are several ways to contact TAS. If you use the “Contact Us” tab, you’ll see that you can submit a request for assistance, find your local TAS office, make suggestions on service improvements, or use the IRS Systemic Advocacy Management System to report issues that are affecting more than one taxpayer.
Looking up notices from the IRS:
If you receive a notice from the IRS, TAS provides a system to look up your notice (you’ll need the notice number) and get a plain language explanation of what the notice means and what is required of you.1
When you look up your notice or select the notice category with the drop-down arrow, you’ll see an option to view your notice in the Taxpayer Roadmap. This will take you to a very complicated-looking (but interesting) flow chart that shows you where in the tax return filing process your issue occurred and the IRS sent your notice.
Now that we’ve covered some of the services you can access on the TAS website, let’s dive into the organization’s background and how it performs systemic advocacy for taxpayers.
Background
TAS was established in 2000 as a result of the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (RRA ‘98).2 Here is a visual overview of the organization’s history that TAS published as a part of its 20th-anniversary celebrations in 20203:
Leadership
The National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) serves as the leader of TAS (it’s an appointed position). Erin M. Collins is serving as the current NTA.
The NTA is supposed to act as the “Voice of the Taxpayer” by advocating for systemic changes to protect the rights of all taxpayers. Some of the NTA’s major duties involve submitting an Annual Report to Congress (more on that later) and testifying about taxpayer services to government committees.
Taxpayer Bill of Rights
Speaking of taxpayer rights, did you know there is a Taxpayer Bill of Rights thanks to TAS? This document summarizes taxpayer rights (as outlined in the federal tax code) in understandable language for those of us who are not tax lawyers or accountants.
You can read the Taxpayer Bill of Rights here (click on the dropdown arrows in each section and you’ll see specific examples of how these rights apply when you file your taxes).
This Taxpayer Bill of Rights Overview video is also informative and could be a great resource for classroom instruction or public programming about taxes:
Reports to Congress and Other Publications
The NTA submits two reports to Congress every year: the Annual Report (in January) and the Objectives Report (in June). The reports highlight serious problems taxpayers face and suggestions as to how IRS services can be improved. They are submitted to the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Ways and Means. Because TAS is independent of the IRS, the IRS does not review these reports before submission.
You can review every Annual Report and Objectives Report on the TAS website. The 2023 Annual Report was recently published. You can read an online overview of sections of the report, or you can download the full document to read through (it’s a little tricky to find this as some links do not seem to be working right now on the website, so here’s the direct link).4
I could do a whole series on TAS publications (let me know in the comments if you would be interested in that!). For now, I’ll just point you to the header on the TAS website homepage that says “Our Reports to Congress”.
You’ll see that in addition to the Annual Report and the Objectives Report, TAS also produces other publications such as research studies, operational plans, and report cards that document how the IRS responds to recommendations made in the Annual Reports. These are very interesting to look through!
Wrap-Up
Did you know about TAS before reading this post? Have you ever used their advocacy services? Which of their resources do you find most useful and/or interesting? Let me know in the comments!
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There is also a lookup system provided by the IRS.
See my brief overview of how to search for legislation on Congress.gov in my post on researching the Build Back Better Act in 2022. And let me know in the comments if you would like a dedicated post to Congress.gov at some point!
U.S. Internal Revenue Service. (2020). Taxpayer Advocate Service: Roadmap to Advocacy.
I also recommend taking a peek at the Purple Book, which is a component of the Annual Report that summarizes the NTA’s legislative recommendations to Congress to benefit taxpayers.
Thanks for letting me know more about what I don't know.
Not mentioned in today's post on the Taxpayer Advocate Service, but I want to take a moment to share a link to the IRS Direct Pilot Program for filing 2023 federal taxes: https://directfile.irs.gov/.
Taxpayers desperately need a free and functional e-filing service through the IRS. If you’re eligible to participate in this pilot, I suggest trying it out! User data is crucial for services like this to succeed in practice, not just in theory.