The Treasury Department is reportedly mulling plans for the Internal Revenue Service to eliminate its multilingual services, such as tax forms and assistance in languages other than English.
The Washington Post reported that the move would be in compliance with an executive order from President Trump in March designating English as the official national language. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued guidance this month calling on departments to phase out multilingual services. "The Department will complete a full internal inventory of all existing non-English services, and release Department-wide plans to phase out unnecessary multilingual offerings," she wrote. "The Department will consider redirecting these funds towards research and programs that would expedite English-language acquisition and increase English-language proficiency and assimilation."
The Treasury Department said in emails the IRS would need to reevaluate its "commitment to assist non-English speaking taxpayers understand their tax obligations," according to the Post. The Treasury and the IRS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The IRS currently offers a wide range of tax forms and services to help taxpayers file their taxes and focused on expanding multilingual services under former IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig and former IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.
It currently provides basic tax information in 20 languages, with about 100 tax forms in Spanish and other languages, along with free phone and in-person translation services and Spanish social media accounts. By filing Schedule LEP, they can request a change in their language preferences to receive written communications from the IRS in another language.
