Since its creation, the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP) has provided nearly 550 recommendations to the IRS to improve taxpayer service and satisfaction with IRS services, procedures and programs. These issues are derived from direct taxpayer feedback and consist of more than 200 recommendations and more than 300 completed projects by TAP Project committees.
After TAP submits a recommendation, IRS program areas review the recommendation and implement it if appropriate and feasible. While the IRS gives serious consideration to TAP recommendations, the IRS is sometimes limited in its ability to implement recommendations due to cost, legislative or regulatory restrictions, a difference in philosophy, or the need to balance relieving taxpayer burdens with their responsibility to efficiently collect proper tax revenues owed.
Results from recommendations submitted in 2009 include:
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The IRS adopted several TAP recommendations to prevent taxpayers from using two identification numbers, after a Social Security number is issued, for reporting income when the taxpayer transitions from using an individual taxpayer identification number to a Social Security number.
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Based on a TAP recommendation, the IRS is updating applicable Internal Revenue Manuals to ensure employees communicate to taxpayers how to file a complaint as outlined in Publication 1, Your Rights as a Taxpayer, and to provide managers the necessary guidance on how to handle taxpayer complaints.
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The IRS will minimize the use of Social Security numbers on correspondence to help guard against identity theft.
Detailed information about TAP’s recommendations to the IRS in 2009, as well as in previous years, is provided below.
Taxpayer Assistance Center Project Committee Recommendations
2010
In December 2009, IRS Field Assistance management requested the Taxpayer Assistance Center (TAC) Project Committee review the current signage in the TACs and improve current communication methods. Detailed information about the Project Committee’s recommendations to the IRS is below.
2009
TAC Project Committee recommendations from 2009, focused on improving the tax payment process currently used at TACs, include: