The Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Appeals is working on resuming in-person meetings, but is sticking with virtual meetings for the moment.
Leaders from the service shared Appeals’ plans at a recent meeting of government officials with practitioner groups, according to Stephen Mankowski, tax chair of the National Conference of CPA Practitioners.
“They’re working on resuming in-person meetings, but will be continuing Zoom meetings for the time being,” said Mankowski. “I have a service center that is a five-minute drive from my office, but even if there were an agent there, we couldn’t meet because of the pandemic. Taxpayers and practitioners will likely continue to use virtual conferences to communicate with the Office as they allow for smoother scheduling. While some staff prefer to move back to in-person meetings, the pandemic has restricted this for now. A number of service centers have installed plexiglass barriers in anticipation of having future in-person meetings.”
The only downside to virtual meetings is the inability to exchange documents, Mankowski noted. “To address this, Appeals has been running a pilot program using Taxpayer Digital Communication to allow the secure exchange of documents. Practitioners and Appeals have both been encouraged by its success so far.”
“Appeals hopes to bring their staffing level up to 1,600 employees through a continued hiring period to monitor the volume of work cases more efficiently and in a timely manner,” Mankowski added. “For large cases, Appeals is looking to increase that department to 40 individuals. Additionally, they intend to boost back-office support; however, all hiring is subject to budget considerations.”
The IRS is considering creating a practitioner panel to discuss the effectiveness of the Appeals department and the taxpayer experience, according to Mankowski: “Ultimately, they want taxpayers and practitioners to have a good opinion of their Office.”
IRS NEXT and 2022 Get Ready
Among the other issues discussed at the meeting was the fact that the Taxpayer First Act Office is now called the IRS NEXT Office, with a charter to focus on both the design and implementation of a revitalized IRS and lead a service-wide change, according to Mankowski.
“Its responsibilities include organizational redesign, recruiting, hiring, training and employee experience,” he explained. “Parts were spun off to the Taxpayer Experience Office led by Ken Corbin, while training moved to the Human Capital Office. Employee experience was broadened to focus on their existing workforce, too. There is a sense of urgency for new hires, but also a desire to retain existing employees. The goal is to have the IRS be a good place to work, with an emphasis on onboarding, workspace, tools and technology, benefits, and flexibility, and career path.”
IRS officials also discussed 2022 Get Ready, an annual campaign that serves to help prepare individual taxpayers for the upcoming filing season.
“The goal is to get the taxpayer thinking about their upcoming taxes in light of stimulus payments, Child Tax Credits, and other factors that will impact their returns in areas that didn’t exist in previous years,” Mankowski explained. “The IRS will supplement its mail campaign with social media to attract the broadest audience. Gathering tax records for next year will include not only the usual forms, but also [those for] international tax, the gig economy, virtual currency, Notice 1444-C (for stimulus payments), and Letter 6419 (tax credit payments).
The IRS will be encouraging taxpayers to “Get Banked,” meaning signing up for direct deposits. “There will also be more information coming regarding Recovery Rebate Credits and Child Tax Credits, as well as how to reconcile these,” Mankowski said. “Regarding refunds, most will be issued in under 21 days. Mid-February will still be the timeframe for sending out refunds on returns with the Earned Income Tax Credit and Additional Child Tax Credit.”
And for the 2022 season, the IRS will add to its “Where’s My Refund?” content on its website to include links to an FAQ section discussing the various reasons for delayed refunds.
“Tax practitioners should make their clients aware that the Recovery Rebate Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit letters will be helpful in preparing their 2021 returns and ensure that the correct figures are used to prevent many of the issues that were encountered this year,” concluded Mankowski. “The IRS is hoping to have draft versions of the letters available to practitioners prior to sending them to taxpayers so that they can advise their clients about them.”
