Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Citizens panel gaining the attention of IRS

The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel is soliciting recommendations from the public on how to improve the Internal Revenue Service. The panel, however, does not handle personal issues concerning accounts or refunds. Contact the panel at (888)912-1227 or through its website, www.improveirs.org.

A regional citizens panel is making its presence known in the ranks of the Internal Revenue Service.

Thursday morning, Gary Doniger, an IRS deputy for Tax Administration Coordination, joined a conference call from his Washington, D.C., office. He spent the next 30 minutes answering questions from the Area 6 committee of the national Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, which was gathered in Las Vegas.

Why, the panel of 14 taxpaying citizens wanted to know, doesn't the IRS include fax numbers on its correspondence, allowing people to save time when submitting information to the bureau?

Mario Burgos, a panel member from New Mexico, said it only makes sense that the IRS, which is working to meet a Congressional mandate of having 80 percent of all tax filings done electronically by 2007, have better avenues for electronic communication.

Doniger responded that the IRS also is constrained by recently expanded privacy laws, making it legally unwise to have personal tax information sitting on any of the agency's many fax machines.

It was one of several issues taken up between IRS officials and panel members Thursday. Members and staff said it illustrates the progress the year-old panel has made in capturing the attention of the IRS since its inception.

"It was unheard of in the past to have a conference call between a citizens' panel and an executive with the IRS," said Sandy McQuin, acting director of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel. "They are making a difference, even if they don't know it."

The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel was created a year ago when a presidential order expanded an existing Citizens Advisory Panel from 16 members to more than 100 members. That move created seven regional committees and ensured that every state would have at least one representative on the panel.

In Nevada, that representative is Justin Doucette, a CPA and a partner in the Coyote Cafe at the MGM Grand. He said panel members, who are volunteering more than 300 hours a year over a three-year term, are committed to making sure the IRS acts on their recommendations.

"They better listen," he said. "If we as a panel can't make recommendations, if we truly aren't going to be heard ... we said the one recommendation we are going to make is going to be to abolish the panel and save $1 million a year.

"If they are not going to listen, don't waste my time or the time of the people I have spoken to."

That, however, has not been a problem, said Doucette, who serves as chairman of the Area 6 committee.

The panel already had tax forms changed, removing a long-standing requirement to have citizens file a power-of-attorney form in order to have a tax preparer represent them in IRS matters. That process has now been reduced to checking a box on a return. While it may not be sweeping reform, it's a change that reduces headaches for citizens.

"There's no telling how much time that saves taxpayers," Doucette said.

The panel members also used the meeting to respond to concerns passed on by constituents in their respective states. Sherry Whah, a member from Alaska, grilled IRS official Alana Casey on problems residents of her state have had accessing information from local Taxpayer Assistance Centers.

Tax preparers, Whah said, had been turned away without receiving pertinent information from the area centers. Casey, a regional IRS director for the Taxpayer Assistance Centers, said the program is faced with limited resources -- constraining the number of services available.

Casey also said tax preparers and citizens should ask for a manager if the responses are not to their satisfactions, a statement that drew skepticism from panel members.

"We've heard, 'Talk to the manager' a lot today," Doucette responded. "What are you guys doing to let people know they have a right to speak to the manager? It wouldn't be the first thing I think of when I am standing across the counter from the IRS, to ask to speak to the manager."

Signs, Casey said, are posted indicating that option. The panel also asked about including additional training for center employees on making the statement to customers in an unsolicited fashion.

An issue facing the panel remains public involvement. Thursday's session included a two-hour block allotted for public comment. Only two people spoke.

One, Tucson tax preparer Ed Perry, also had complaints about the ability to access information about clients at the assistance centers. Information once available over the counter, he said, is not going to be available after Oct. 1. The alternative means of access, an IRS priority telephone line for tax preparers, was taking 30 days to process requests for information.

Panel members questioned the move to limit information available at the centers.

"I think we have a policy change that we need to oppose," Burgos said, adding that the issue should be elevated to the joint committee of the regional committee chairs.

The panel also moved to research the cause of delays in delivering information requested through the telephone system. The response drew a positive reaction from Perry, who said the panel and the IRS need to work harder at getting the word out to the public.

"They don't advertise enough," he said. "They are a relatively unknown organization."

Still, having a citizens panel making recommendations to the IRS was a positive step, Perry said.

"Almost everything else the (IRS) does is so connected it's inbred. They can't see where changes need to be made. ... These are people who aren't connected to the service. They have a common sense approach."

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