We are looking out for you ...... Here is how.

We are part of a Coalition of Tax Practioners and Certified Public Accountants who believe the IRS need to do more during these unprecedent times to assist taxpayers.

The Tax Practitioners United for Taxpayer Relief Coalition is an unprecedented, diverse group of stakeholders from the tax practitioner community including those representing Latinos, African Americans, small businesses, and low-income taxpayers. The Coalition was formed in response to current issues with the IRS’ quality of service for taxpayers and tax practitioners and provide recommendations to address these issues.

This coalition pressed for action, via a collective effort of letters to the Treasury and the IRS. On Feb. 8, 2022, the National Taxpayer Advocate, testified before the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing on taxpayers’ challenges. In response, NATP, as a part of the Tax Professionals United for Taxpayer Relief Coalition, submitted a letter to the Committee Chairman and Ranking Members. This letter restated the request that Treasury and the IRS take steps by:

• Temporarily discontinue automated compliance actions until the IRS is prepared to devote the necessary resources for a proper and timely resolution of the problems this has created for taxpayers

• Align requests for account holds with the time it takes the IRS to process any penalty abatement requests

• Offer a reasonable cause penalty waiver, similar to the procedures of first-time abate (FTA) administrative waiver, without affecting the taxpayer’s eligibility for FTA in future tax years

• Provide taxpayers with targeted relief from both the underpayment of estimated tax penalty and the late payment penalty for the 2020 and 2021 tax years

While the IRS did address some of these requests when they announced on February 9th, the suspension of more than a dozen additional letters, including the mailing of automated collection notices normally issued when a taxpayer owes additional tax, and the IRS has no record of a taxpayer filing a tax return.

We as part of the Tax Coalition remain concerned. We believe this to be a good first step. But remain steadfast in the belief that temporarily suspending all automated compliance actions as the IRS did with the onset of the COVID pandemic will go a long way to helping Taxpayers, Tax Practioners and the IRS to better navigate another challenging tax season.

We will continue to keep you posted on the Coalitions efforts.