Earlier today, the NTA released the 2017 Annual Report to Congress. In addition to its sections on most serious problems, legislative recommendations, ten most litigated issues and a dedicated volume on research studies, this year the report contains a Purple Book, which is a new feature and is described as a “concise summary of 50 legislative recommendations that she believes will strengthen taxpayer rights and improve tax administration.”
In the next few days, we will be reviewing the report, and will flag areas of interest for our readers. I am especially interested in the Purple Book, and think setting off recommendations relating to taxpayer rights in a separate volume is an excellent way to highlight the importance of taxpayer rights and help ensure that the IRS embraces taxpayer rights as a guiding principle of tax administration.
A good place to start is the preface, where the NTA discusses the funding challenges that IRS has faced and continues to face. While noting that a lack of funding is a major challenge, she notes that should not be the end of the conversation:
At the same time, limited resources cannot be used as an all-purpose excuse for mediocrity. There is not a day that goes by inside the agency when someone proposes a good idea only to be told, “We don’t have the resources.” In the private and nonprofit sectors, saying “we don’t have the resources” is the beginning of the discussion, not the end. Yet with the IRS, lack of resources often has become a reflexive excuse for not doing something, or worse, for doing things “to save resources” that harm taxpayers, foster noncompliance, and undermine taxpayer and employee morale.
The consequences of poor taxpayer service and a defeatist attitude toward tax administration are far reaching. The preface emphasizes that the IRS can do a “better job of using creativity and innovation to provide taxpayer service, encourage compliance, and address noncompliance.”
I look forward to reading the report.
About Leslie Book
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