The IRS Is Striving to Be More Taxpayer Friendly

Transcript of Podcast Episode 138

The IRS has initiated several improvements in services in recent years, all in an effort to be more taxpayer friendly and to ensure that it is providing as much information as possible to a diverse American population.

For example, during the pandemic in 2020, Economic Impact Payments (so-called “stimulus payments”) were made to most Americans. However, given the vast number of languages spoken and written in this country, outreach materials were delivered in 35 different languages. More recently, the IRS has revised its website, irs.gov, to include a “Languages” page that provides basic tax information in 20 different languages. High-volume web pages have also been translated into several different languages.

Many services where taxpayers need to interact with the IRS over the telephone have received support with the IRS’s Over-the-Phone Interpreter services. That includes the IRS’s general taxpayer hotline at 800-829-1040, which serves as a gateway for multilingual services across the IRS. The IRS will continue to look into expanding multilingual telephone assistance going forward.

Also in 2020, the IRS instituted procedures to allow taxpayers to provide certain authorizations to their tax practitioners, such as their CPAs or tax attorneys, through the use of electronic signatures, rather than paper filings. For instance, you can now give your CPA permission to access and view your tax information, or grant them a power of attorney to represent you before the IRS, through the use of electronic signatures. In the future, projects to expand the use of electronic signatures will be implemented.

More recently, the IRS has piloted a new program by including Quick Response (“QR”) codes in its various collection and compliance notices. This enables taxpayers to use their smartphones and tablets to scan the QR code and be directed to online resources to resolve tax issues. The QR codes may also direct a taxpayer to access their online account, apply for a payment plan through an Online Payment Agreement, or contact the Taxpayer Advocate Service.

These self-service options will help to improve taxpayer experience and services provided.

In addition to QR codes, the IRS has redesigned many of its collection notices. The newly redesigned notices are aimed at simplifying language, grouping topics into specific sections and providing self-help options. All of these improvements are intended to allow taxpayers to resolve some of their issues without the need to call the IRS.

As some of us may know, trying to obtain information or resolve an issue with the IRS can be stressful, time-consuming and sometimes aggravating. Hopefully, these and other projects that the IRS has planned will make it easier for taxpayers to deal with them.

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