According to the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, the National Taxpayer Advocate must report to the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee twice a year. In the most recent report, submitted in June of this year, the National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina E. Olson, laid out the plans she has for the Taxpayer Advocate Service in the year 2002.
Ms. Olson plans to accomplish four major things in the next two years. They include, trying to change the tax laws in order to make the IRS more efficient and user-friendly, cutting down on needless work handled by the TAS, improving the TAS’s ability to respond well to a taxpayer’s concerns, and making sure that the Human Resources Department of the TAS does its work and does it well.
The TAS helps people deal with tax issues that arise with the IRS. You may be a candidate for help from a tax advocate if you the IRS is giving you trouble on a certain issue, you have tried to solve a problem with the IRS but can still find no way around it, and/or you were not contacted by the appropriate people on the date listed or within a 30 day period after one would expect the claim to be processed.
If you would like to see a copy of the National Taxpayer Advocate’s Fiscal 2002 Objectives Report to Congress, go to www.irs.gov/ind_info/tas02obj.pdf. If you feel like you need the assistance of a taxpayer advocate, call toll free at 1-877-777-4778.
