CARL WATTS & ASSOCIATES

August 18, 2014

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Taxpayer Bill of Rights
On June 10th this summer, the IRS announced the adoption of a “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” that will become a cornerstone document to provide the nation's taxpayers with a better understanding of their rights.

According to the IRS, this doesn’t mean that taxpayers didn’t have these rights before, what the Bill of Rights does is take the multiple existing rights embedded in the tax code and group them into 10 broad categories, making them more visible and easier for taxpayers to find.

"The Taxpayer Bill of Rights contains fundamental information to help taxpayers," said IRS Commissioner John A. Koskinen. "These are core concepts about which taxpayers should be aware.

Respecting taxpayer rights continues to be a top priority for IRS employees, and the new Taxpayer Bill of Rights summarizes these important protections in a clearer, more understandable format than ever before.”

How does this impact taxpayers? According to a recent survey, only 46% of taxpayers believe that they have any rights before the IRS and just a mere 11% of taxpayers actually knew what those rights were. Those statistics, as the National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson declared, are demonstrative of why she has personally worked for the better part of seven years to bring a “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” to the nation’s taxpayers.

You should also know that the rights have been incorporated into a redesigned version of Publication 1, a document that is routinely included in IRS correspondence with taxpayers. The new version has been added to the IRS website (Taxpayer Bill of Rights), and print copies will start being included in IRS correspondence in the near future.


Below you will find the ten rights as they are outlined on the IRS website and a brief comment on how these rights reflect on your dealings with the IRS.


1. The Right to Be Informed

Any notice that you receive from the IRS should explain clearly why and what you need to do to comply with the tax law. You have the right to be informed of IRS decisions about your tax accounts and to receive clear explanations of the outcomes.



2. The Right to Quality Service


It is the IRS Mission Statement to provide America's taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all.

You have the right to receive prompt, courteous, and professional assistance in your dealings with the IRS, to be spoken to in a way you can easily understand, to receive clear and easily understandable communications from the IRS, and to speak to a supervisor about inadequate service.

As a general rule, the IRS should only contact you between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. and should not contact you at your place of employment if the IRS knows or has reason to know that your employer does not allow such contacts.


3. The Right to Pay No More than the Correct Amount of Tax

You have the right to pay only the amount of tax legally due, including interest and penalties, and to have the IRS apply all tax payments properly.


4. The Right to Challenge the IRS’s Position and Be Heard

You have the right to raise objections and provide additional documentation in response to formal IRS actions or proposed actions, to expect that the IRS will consider your timely objections and documentation promptly and fairly, and to receive a response if the IRS does not agree with your position.



5. The Right to Appeal an IRS Decision in an Independent Forum

You are entitled to a fair and impartial administrative appeal of most IRS decisions, including many penalties, and have the right to receive a written response regarding the Office of Appeals’ decision.


6. The Right to Finality

You have the right to know the maximum amount of time you have to challenge the IRS’s position as well as the maximum amount of time the IRS has to audit a particular tax year or collect a tax debt. You have the right to know when the IRS has finished an audit.


7. The Right to Privacy

You have the right to expect that any IRS inquiry, examination, or enforcement action will comply with the law and be no more intrusive than necessary, and will respect all due process rights, including search and seizure protections and will provide, where applicable, a collection due process hearing.


8. The Right to Confidentiality

You have the right to expect that any information you provide to the IRS will not be disclosed unless authorized by the taxpayer or by law. You have the right to expect appropriate action will be taken against employees, return preparers, and others who wrongfully use or disclose taxpayer return information.


9 . The Right to Retain Representation

You have the right to retain an authorized representative of your choice to represent you in your dealings with the IRS. You have the right to seek assistance from a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic if you cannot afford representation.


10. The Right to a Fair and Just Tax System

You have the right to expect the tax system to consider facts and circumstances that might affect your underlying liabilities, ability to pay, or ability to provide information timely. You have the right to receive assistance from the Taxpayer Advocate Service if you are experiencing financial difficulty or if the IRS has not resolved your tax issues properly and timely through its normal channels.

It is everybody’s hope that the IRS will continue to improve their service and relationship with American taxpayers. After all, the IRS collects an estimated 85.5% of what is owed, and 98% is collected voluntarily — that is, without the IRS taking special collection efforts through liens and other measures. By and large, people pay the taxes they owe.

But the complexity of the tax law means that people need help filling out their taxes, and the IRS is increasingly falling short of giving that help. According to the Taxpayer Advocate's 2013 report to Congress, last year the IRS received 109 million telephone calls, but only 61% of those seeking help got through. Average wait time: 17.6 minutes on hold, up from 2.6 minutes in 2004. The conclusion was that, in an effort to reduce hold periods, the IRS will answer only basic tax questions, and not detailed ones, in 2014.


It is, as always, our advice to enroll professional help in all your tax dealings. This will not only provide you with all the detailed answers you are seeking, but will also save you precious time and, more often than not, your money as well.
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