TAP Releases IRS Recommendations

The Taxpayer Advocacy Panel has issued a report calling on the Internal Revenue Service to improve its services and customer satisfaction as well as reduce the burden on taxpayers.

The annual report from TAP, a federal advisory committee comprising citizen volunteers from across the country, summarizes 58 recommendations the group presented to the IRS in 2006. The document also provides an update on the status of 250 earlier recommendations made by TAP to the IRS since 2002.

Among the panel’s recommendations are for the IRS to provide a consolidated source of information for taxpayers in federal disaster areas to ease their search for assistance. The group also wants the IRS to revise its offer-in-compromise instructions to clearly explain how the IRS evaluates offers.

In addition, TAP recommends the IRS change the application form for an individual taxpayer identification number for a dependent spouse of a U.S. nonresident alien so it can easily match the application with the spouse’s tax return and not require further correspondence.

The panel has worked closely with the IRS on various issues and has solicited grassroots recommendations from taxpayers in different parts of the U.S. TAP provides input to the IRS on areas such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, taxpayer assistance centers, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, notice simplification and multilingual strategy.

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