12/12/2019

IRS Focused on Implementing Reforms

This will be the agency's main focus in 2020

The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) main focus in 2020 will be implementing the Taxpayer First Act, which includes a number of far-reaching reforms of the IRS aimed at improving customer service, modernizing the agency’s information technology and strengthening taxpayers’ recourses in enforcement cases.

The law requires the agency to create an independent Office of Appeals to resolve taxpayer disputes and directs Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to provide a written IRS restructuring plan to Congress by Sept. 30, 2020.

The agency created a new office of about 20 IRS employees in August to help guide the implementation plan. IRS Chief of Staff Lia Colbert told Bloomberg BNA that the office is in an information-gathering stage to gather feedback from the private sector and recently launched a web page where individuals can submit public comments to inform the agency’s planning. Some of the law’s provisions, such as improving IRS training and customer service, will require additional resources to build out new information technology capabilities at the agency, Colbert said.

“It is the top priority for the agency,” Colbert added. “We really want to let the data and information drive how this goes.”

This article was provided to OSAE by the Power of A and ASAE's Inroads.