Annual Report from the National Taxpayer Advocate

Each year, the National Taxpayer Advocate is required to provide a report to Congress. The report identifies problems and issues and suggests ways in which they can be fixed. The report for 2011, which was issued by Advocate Nina Olsen, identified the IRS’s expanding workload and declining resources as the most serious problem now facing taxpayers. The IRS issues produce such results as:

• Shortcutting taxpayer rights by relying increasingly on automated data-matching procedures, rather than on human review.
• Determining that taxpayers have committed fraud without giving them notice or an opportunity to respond.
• Delaying large refunds.

The National Taxpayer Advocate recommends that Congress review the funding for the IRS and that there be a new Taxpayer Bill of Rights guaranteeing taxpayers certain rights and imposing certain responsibilities.

Source: IR-2012-6, 1/11/12