In a move that it says will provide better service to taxpayers and increase its ability to fix problems, the IRS has approved the recommendations of a cross-functional task force and granted expanded authority to the Taxpayer Advocate Service.

The change enables the TAS to fully resolve a large number of taxpayer cases without having to refer the cases to other parts of the IRS, which should result in quicker resolution of taxpayers' problems, the agency said.

The additional authority will generally permit TAS employees to take the same actions as IRS Customer Service Representatives in cases that qualify to be in the Taxpayer Advocate Service, including adjustments and other account-related interactions.

The IRS also clarified the guidelines for issuing Taxpayer Assistance Orders (TAOs), orders issued by the Taxpayer Advocate Service that can be used to direct appropriate IRS units to take an action to prevent a significant hardship or to reconsider a determination made in a specific case.

The agency recently tapped Nina E. Olson as its new National Taxpayer Advocate, the person charged with overseeing the IRS's nationwide system of local taxpayer advocates.

Olson, founder of the Richmond, Va.-based Community Tax Law project, succeeds W. Val Oveson, who left the agency last fall to join PricewaterhouseCoopers as a managing director in the firm's State Tax Consulting Practice in Salt Lake City. Henry Lamar has served as Acting National Taxpayer Advocate since Oveson's departure in September.

Olson will assume the post in early March.

-- SmartPros News Staff

Send comments to information@smartpros.com.

Back to NewsLine