Recommendations aimed at providing greater ease, convenience to taxpayers and the tax community
WASHINGTON – The IRS Monday sent the Taxpayer First Act Report to Congress, a comprehensive set of recommendations that will reimagine the taxpayer experience, enhance employee training and restructure the organization to increase collaboration and innovation.
The IRS will continue conversations with key stakeholders and congressional committees to secure funding and begin to work toward implementation of these recommendations over the next several years.
“The way we interact with taxpayers and the tax community, the way that we train our employees and the way we structure our organizational structure are important foundations for our future success,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “Guided by the law, we will fundamentally change the way we operate, building upon our strengths, with additional focus on areas to improve the important service we provide to our great country.”
The Taxpayer First Act, signed into law in July 2019, was designed to improve taxpayer service and ensure the IRS continues to enforce the tax law in a fair and impartial manner. The report to Congress includes three integrated sets of recommendations required by the law, including:
- A taxpayer experience strategy that focuses on creating a proactive, convenient, seamless, personalized and effective interaction with taxpayers and the tax professional community;
- A comprehensive training strategy, a multi-faceted approach to empowering the workforce and equipping them with the skills and tools they need to advance their careers, provide high-quality service to taxpayers and enhance the taxpayer experience, and
- A recommended organizational design that will increase collaboration, coordinate strategic implementation of large-scale initiatives, enhance innovation, strengthen communications and prioritize taxpayer rights, all with the aim of improving the taxpayer experience.
The IRS will begin work to implement several of the recommendations in the report as early as 2021, building upon work already underway to expand digital services, reach underserved communities and improve proactive outreach.
“Over the next 10 years, taxpayers will find expanded options for information and services and an increasingly better experience across all of their interactions with the IRS,” Rettig said.
The report to Congress is available on IRS.gov.
