With students headed back to school in a few short weeks, parents and students alike should be advised of telephone scammers who target taxpayers during the back-to-school season. Such scammers demand payment for taxes like the “Federal Student Tax” — a bogus tax.

Scammers are always trying to update ways in which they can carry out their scams, including: altering the caller ID on incoming calls, imitating legitimate software providers, verifying a taxpayer’s tax return over phone, and requesting tax payments using things like iTunes gift cards. Parents and students should think twice before accepting such requests.

Please be advised that if you or someone you know gets a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS that the following should be taken into consideration:

• The IRS will never call demanding immediate payment. The IRS will usually mail you a bill first and is obligated to give you the opportunity to find out more information about the amount you owe.
• The IRS will not threaten you with immediate enforcement action like warning you that law-enforcement will have you arrested if you do not pay up.
• The IRS will never ask for credit or debit card information over a phone line.

For more information on what to do if you receive a suspicious IRS-related communication, please read up on report phishing and online scams. There is also more information on identity theft and return preparer fraud. This information will help you stay informed and in control of what you owe.

Two new videos are now available that provide a brief overview of the four available Affordable Care Act (ACA) estimator tools. All of the easy-to-use ACA estimators are designed to help you estimate ACA related credits and payments.

The videos separate the estimator overviews by audience: one for individuals covering the Individual Shared Responsibility Payment and the Premium Tax Credit Change estimators; and one for businesses that cover the Small Business Healthcare Tax Credit and the Employer Shared Responsibility Payment estimators.

These videos are available on the TAS YouTube channel, via links on the Taxpayer Advocate website, in the side menu within each corresponding Estimator.

The direct YouTube links are:

• Individual ACA Estimators video
• Business ACA Estimators video

Each video highlights the purpose of each estimator, provides a short overview of how they are set up and recommends steps to follow prior to using the actual estimator itself. Both are only about two minutes in length, each.

So take a couple of minutes to see if any of these tools can help you plan ahead or help you understand what each tax provision means, if they apply to you, what you’ll need when you go to prepare your tax return and which forms or schedules you will need to complete to claim each credit or payment.

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson and Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Ranking Member of its Subcommittee on Human Resources, held a public forum to discuss what taxpayers want and need from the IRS to comply with their tax obligations.

The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce hosted the forum at the Maestro Entrepreneur Center in San Antonio.  About 60 participants from the surrounding area were in attendance.  Representative Doggett expressed concerns about the inadequacy of IRS funding levels and thanked Nina Olson for her efforts to improve the IRS through her Reports to Congress.  A panel of invited speakers spoke about a number of taxpayer service issues and emphasized that taxpayers sometimes require face-to-face interaction with the IRS to resolve issues and help them comply with the tax laws.

Panelists Jim Oliver and James Smith, representing the Texas Society of CPAs, voiced concerns about the decreasing IRS geographic presence in the state of Texas, the effects of which have been exacerbated by the IRS’s decision to serve only taxpayers with advance appointments at its Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TAC)s.  In many cases, TACs will not even accept tax payments from walk-in taxpayers without appointments, including in one case a certified check for $450,000.

Panelists further discussed inadequate staffing in the IRS Appeals function and its negative effects on taxpayer rights.  Panelists agreed that online accounts could pose a risk for taxpayers to accurately resolve their issues without any personal interaction with the IRS.  Polly Bone, Director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, noted that low income taxpayers often cannot afford broadband internet to access the online accounts described by the IRS’s Future State plan.  Finally, the panelists discussed their concerns with online account access envisioned by the IRS Future State plan in light of increasing problems of identity theft and tax scams.

Members of the audience, including small business owners, individual taxpayers, and area practitioners, actively participated in the public comments session. Several of the panelists submitted written statements:

• Polly Bone, Director
  The Texas Taxpayer Assistance Project LITC, Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, Inc.
  • Statement
• Jim Oliver, Certified Public Accountant
  Jim Oliver & Associates, P.C.
  • Statement
• James A. Smith, Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants
  Smith, Jackson, Boyer & Bovard, PLLC
  • Statement
• LaMarr Queen, Senior Civil Law Paralegal/JBSA-Randolph Tax Program Coordinator
  Joint Base San Antonio
  • Statement
• Jaime Vasquez, Attorney, CPA,
  Shareholder Chamberlain Hrdlicka Law Firm
  • Statement

More about the forum:

• Speaker Biographies
• Meeting Agenda
• Read the full press release

Read more about the forums

Comments regarding the Future State of the IRS may be submitted by email. Please do not send account-related questions to this email address.

Today the National Taxpayer Advocate released Volume 2 of the Fiscal Year 2017 Objectives Report to Congress and announced that presenter papers submitted from the November 2015 inaugural conference on international taxpayer rights have now been posted to the TAS website.
 
Objectives Report to Congress Volume 2
The National Taxpayer Advocate is required by statute to submit a year-end report to Congress that, among other things, describes at least 20 of the most serious problems facing taxpayers and makes administrative recommendations to mitigate those problems. Overall, the Advocate made 116 administrative recommendations in the “most serious problems” section of her 2015 year-end report, and the IRS has implemented or agreed to implement 65 of the Advocate’s recommendations, or 56 percent.
 
The volume released today contains IRS general responses to each of the problems the Advocate identified as well as specific responses to each recommendation. In addition, it contains TAS’s analysis of the IRS’s responses and, in some cases, details TAS’s disagreement with the IRS’s position.

“People who work in the field of tax administration and taxpayers generally can benefit greatly from reading the agency responses to our report,” Ms. Olson said.  “Tax administration is a complex field with many trade-offs required.  Reading both my office’s critique and the IRS’s responses in combination will provide readers with a broader perspective on key issues, the IRS’s rationale for its policies and procedures, and alternative options we recommend.”

Read the full report at:
http://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/2017ObjectivesReport.
 
International Conference on Taxpayer Rights
In November 2015, the National Taxpayer Advocate convened and hosted a first-of-its-kind International Conference on Taxpayer Rights.  The conference brought together presentations from government officials, scholars, and practitioners from around the world to explore how taxpayer rights serve as a foundation for effective tax administration.  As of today, the papers presented at the conference are posted on the TAS website at https://taxpayerrightsconference.com/conference-papers.
 
More than 160 people from 22 countries participated as panelists or attended the conference. Conference co-sponsors were the American Bar Association Tax Section, the American College of Tax Counsel, the American Tax Policy Institute, the International Association of Tax Judges, and the International Fiscal Association – USA Branch. Tax Analysts served as the publishing sponsor of the conference.

“The inaugural conference allowed taxpayer rights advocates from around the world to exchange ideas and discuss various approaches,” Ms. Olson said.

The 2nd International Conference on Taxpayer Rights will be held in Vienna, Austria on March 13-14, 2017.  

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson and Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Ranking Member of its Subcommittee on Human Resources, will hold a public forum to discuss what taxpayers want and need from the IRS to comply with their tax obligations.

The public forum will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 30, at 8:30 am local time at the Maestro Entrepreneur Center, San Antonio, Texas. Members of the public and the media are invited to attend.

Building on initiatives already implemented, the IRS for the past two years has been developing a “Future State” plan that envisions how it will operate in five years and beyond.  It is continuing to develop a path for how it gets from its “Current State” to the “Future State,” including refinements to the vision along the way.  A central component of the plan is the creation of online taxpayer accounts as a convenient but non-exclusive channel through which taxpayers will be able to obtain information from and interact with the IRS.

In the National Taxpayer Advocate’s 2015 Annual Report to Congress, Ms. Olson expressed concerns about whether the IRS’s “Future State” plan adequately addresses taxpayer needs. She recommended the IRS solicit comments from taxpayers and tax professionals regarding the “Future State” plan, including their thoughts on the extent to which taxpayers will continue to need telephone and in-person assistance. To further public awareness and dialogue, she announced plans to hold a series of public forums around the country. The objective of the public forums is to ensure the “Future State” plan will better reflect the needs and preferences of U.S. taxpayers as they seek to comply with the tax code.

In the National Taxpayer Advocate’s FY 2017 Objectives Report to Congress, Ms. Olson highlighted notable observations and suggestions shared by panelists at public forums held earlier this year.  She wrote: “Although the National Taxpayer Advocate has been charged by Congress to be the voice of the taxpayer inside the IRS, what we heard at the Public Forums around the country were the voices of real taxpayers and their real representatives. They are compelling, articulate, and clear about what they need in order to comply with the tax laws.”

The Aug. 30 public forum will feature an invited panel of representatives from the local area, including:

Polly Bone, Director
The Texas Taxpayer Assistance Project LITC Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, Inc. | San Antonio

Jim Oliver, Certified Public Accountant
Jim Oliver & Associates, P.C. | San Antonio

James A. Smith, Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants
Smith, Jackson, Boyer & Bovard, PLLC | Dallas

LaMarr Queen, Senior Civil Law Paralegal/JBSA-Randolph Tax Program Coordinator
Joint Base San Antonio | Randolph, Texas

Jaime Vasquez, Attorney, CPA,
Shareholder Chamberlain Hrdlicka Law Firm | San Antonio

Members of the public will also have an opportunity to speak.

Local Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) staff will be available to talk with attendees about unresolved tax issues and help determine if their situation qualifies for TAS assistance. TAS generally is unable to assist taxpayers with return preparation questions, but can provide assistance to taxpayers who have already filed their returns with the IRS for the current or past years and are experiencing problems that meet its case-acceptance criteria.

The public forum will take place at the Maestro Entrepreneur Center, 1811 S. Laredo St. San Antonio, TX 78207.

More about the Forum:

• Speaker Biographies
• Meeting Agenda
• Read the full press release

Read more about the forums

Comments regarding the Future State of the IRS may be submitted by email. Please do not send account-related questions to this email address.