TAS has reviewed the TIGTA report, researched the applicable legal standards and IRS procedures, searched for TAS cases involving these issues, and reviewed known systemic issues in EO. Although TAS agrees with TIGTA’s recommendations, we reviewed these materials to further analyze the causes of the problem, and determine why it was not identified or corrected sooner. Our goal was to develop additional recommendations to help prevent the problem from recurring and restore trust with the taxpaying public. A summary of TAS’s findings and recommendations, which fall into four broad categories, follows: Lack of Guidance and Transparency Absence of Adequate Checks and Balances Management and Administrative Failures EO’s Cultural Difficulty with TAS The National Taxpayer Advocate plans to make recommendations on this subject in her year-end report.8 At a minimum, she recommends that Congress enact a Taxpayer Bill of Rights that sets forth ten broad rights, modeled on the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, to help make existing rights clearer and help taxpayers better understand them. The National Taxpayer Advocate has made this recommendation in prior annual reports, and the treatment of § 501(c)(4) applicants violated most of the ten proposed taxpayer rights. We further recommend that Congress authorize the National Taxpayer Advocate to make symbolic “apology payments” of up to $1,000 to taxpayers where the IRS has caused excessive expense or undue burden to the taxpayer, and the taxpayer has experienced a significant hardship. This is something that tax administrations in a number of other countries already provide for. For present purposes, we offer the following preliminary proposals for consideration and discussion by Congress and the IRS, which merit additional study, but are likely to evolve after further analysis.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 09:19:07 +0000
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