- The IRS has now collected $122 million dollars in 100 of these already assigned 1,600 cases. Examples of cases closed since the Inflation Reduction Act passed follow:
- An individual last month was ordered to pay more than $15 million in restitution. The individual falsified millions of dollars of personal expenses as deductible business expenses and financed construction of a 51,000-square-foot mansion, including expenses of interior and exterior construction costs; an outdoor pool and pool house; and tennis, basketball and bocce courts. The individual falsified millions of dollars of expenses for luxury vehicles, artwork, country club memberships and homes for his children.
- An individual last week pled guilty to filing false tax returns and skimming more than $670,000 from his business. The individual spent $110,000 on personal expenses and $502,000 on gambling.
- An individual was sentenced to 54 months in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining $5 million in COVID relief loans for sham businesses. The individual then spent the money on himself, purchasing Ferrari, Bentley and Lamborghini cars.
Improving taxpayer service
The IRS is focused on helping taxpayers get it right the first time — claiming the credits and deductions for which they're eligible and avoiding back-and-forth with the agency when errors arise. To help taxpayers get it right, the IRS is working toward taxpayers being able to seamlessly interact with the agency in the ways that work best for them on the phone, in-person and online.
The IRS is expanding in-person service and meeting taxpayers where they are, particularly those in underserved and rural communities. The IRS is continuing to expand Taxpayer Assistance Centers across the country while also starting a special series of events to help taxpayers living in areas far from the agency's in-person offices.
- Community Assistance Visits: In these new Community Assistance Visits, the IRS will set up a temporary Taxpayer Assistance Center to give taxpayers from hard-to-reach areas an opportunity to meet face-to-face with IRS customer service representatives. The IRS has conducted seven events in Paris, Texas; Alpena, Michigan; Hastings, Nebraska; Twin Falls, Idaho; Juneau, Alaska; Lihue, Hawaii; and Baker City, Oregon. Many of the taxpayers served at these events had exhausted all other options for IRS services. The feedback from IRS employees, taxpayers and the host sites have all been very positive. Currently, two additional locations have been identified to host Community Assistance Visits in Ciales , Puerto Rico and Gallup, New Mexico.
- Opening Taxpayer Assistance Centers: Currently, the IRS has opened or reopened the following 50 Taxpayer Assistance Centers since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, including eight additional centers since the first anniversary of the law's enactment:
Taxpayer Assistance Center Date opened/reopened Waco, Texas Oct. 10, 2023 Missoula, Montana Oct. 2, 2023 Martinsburg, West Virginia Oct. 2, 2023 Monroe, Louisiana Sept. 25, 2023 York, Pennsylvania Sept. 18, 2023 Topeka, Kansas Sept. 5, 2023 Utica, New York Aug. 28, 2023 Fayetteville, Arkansas Aug. 14, 2023 Hickory, North Carolina Aug. 7, 2023 Rome, Georgia Aug. 7, 2023 Plantation, Florida Aug. 3, 2023 Panama City, Florida July 31, 2023 Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania July 31, 2023 Peoria, Illinois July 24, 2023 Huntington, West Virginia July 5, 2023 Lincoln, Nebraska May 23, 2023 La Vale, Maryland May 15, 2023 Altoona, Pennsylvania May 8, 2023 Fredericksburg, Virginia May 1, 2023 Parkersburg, West Virginia May 1, 2023 Bend, Oregon April 17, 2023 Greenville, Mississippi April 10, 2023 Trenton, New Jersey April 10, 2023 Bellingham, Washington April 3, 2023 Augusta, Maine March 30, 2023 Jackson, Tennessee March 28, 2023 Joplin, Missouri March 28, 2023 Colorado Springs, Colorado March 27, 2023 Glendale, Arizona March 27, 2023 Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania March 22, 2023 La Crosse, Wisconsin March 20, 2023 Charlottesville, Virginia March 17, 2023 Queensbury, New York March 9, 2023 Santa Fe, New Mexico Feb. 27, 2023 Longview, Texas Jan. 17, 2023 Overland Park, Kansas Jan. 17, 2023 West Nyack, New York Jan. 5, 2023 Binghamton, New York Jan. 3, 2023 Casper, Wyoming Jan. 3, 2023 Fort Myers, Florida Dec. 19, 2022 Grand Junction, Colorado Dec. 19, 2022 Rockford, Illinois Dec. 12, 2022 Hagerstown, Maryland Dec. 1, 2022 DASE ( Guaynabo ), Puerto Rico Nov. 28, 2022 Johnson City, Tennessee Nov. 28, 2022 Prestonsburg, Kentucky Nov. 28, 2022 Vienna, Virginia Nov. 28, 2022 Greensboro, North Carolina Nov. 22, 2022 Bloomington, Illinois Nov. 21, 2022 Ponce , Puerto Rico Nov. 14, 2022 - Taxpayer Assistance Center hiring update: As of September 23, the IRS has hired 745 employees to staff Taxpayer Assistance Centers. This represents a 31% net increase in Taxpayer Assistance Center staffing compared to fiscal year 2022, and IRS continues to hire to replace departing staff. Taxpayer Assistance Centers have served about 235,000 more taxpayers in fiscal year 2023 than fiscal year 2022, an 18% increase.
Taxpayers deserve the same functionality in their online accounts that they experience with their bank or other financial institutions. As detailed in the Strategic Operating Plan, in the next five years, taxpayers will be able to securely file all documents and respond to all notices online and securely access and download their data and account history. The IRS has hit or has in-progress several milestones toward this goal, including the launch of business tax account, the expansion of its Document Upload Tool to accept responses to nearly all notices and letters, and the launch of digital mobile-adaptive forms.
- Business tax account: IRS launched the first phase of business tax account that over time will allow business taxpayers to check their tax payment history, make payments, view notices, authorize powers of attorney and conduct other business with the IRS. This initial phase allows unincorporated sole proprietors who have an active Employer Identification Number to set up a business tax account, where they can view their business profile and manage authorized users. Future improvements will allow taxpayers to use their business tax accounts to view letters or notices, request tax transcripts, add third parties for power of attorney or tax information authorizations, schedule or cancel tax payments and store bank account information.
- Respond to notices online: Taxpayers are now able to respond to notices online. Until filing season 2023, when taxpayers received notices for things like document verification, they had to respond through the mail. During filing season 2023, taxpayers were able to respond to 10 of the most common notices for credits like the Earned Income and Health Insurance Tax Credits online, saving them time and money. As of September 29, the IRS has received more than 32,000 responses to notices via the online tool.
- Enable taxpayers to submit mobile-friendly forms: The IRS is enabling taxpayers to submit mobile-friendly forms with the launch of the first three forms. These forms are adaptive for mobile device screen and can be submitted electronically when completed. This is also an important milestone toward the IRS goal of meeting taxpayers where they are and allowing them to interact with the IRS in the ways that work best for them. An estimated 15% of Americans rely solely on mobile phones for their internet access — they do not have broadband at home — so it is important to make forms available in mobile-friendly formats. The first three forms launched at the end of September.
- Form 15109, Request for Tax Deferment. Taxpayers can provide information related to their entry and exit from service in combat ones, contingency operations or hazardous duty stations.
- Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit. Taxpayers can provide information related to the fraudulent use of their and/or dependent identity.
- Form 14242, Reporting Abusive Tax Promotions and/or Preparers. Taxpayers use this form to provide detail information about tax schemes.
- A fourth form, Form 13909, Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint, will launch later this fall. At least 20 of the most-used tax forms will launch in early 2024.
In addition, the IRS continues to expand the functionality of several online platforms:
- Individual account: The IRS continues to deploy enhanced capabilities for individual accounts, following the May launch of virtual assistance and live chat. Taxpayers can now validate their bank accounts and save multiple accounts, eliminating the need to re-enter bank account information every time they make a payment. This feature launched at the end of September.
- Tax professional account: The IRS continues to provide enhanced capabilities for tax professionals' online accounts, helping practitioners manage their active client authorizations on file with the Centralized Authorization File (CAF) database, which stores the information on individuals authorized to act on a taxpayer's behalf. Other enhancements put into place in September 2023 allow tax professionals to view their client's tax information, including balance due amounts. Tax Pro Account users can now also withdraw from their active authorizations online in real time.
Modernizing Technology
On the technology side, the IRS is modernizing decades-old technology to drive the agency's efforts to provide world class customer service and protect taxpayers' data.
- Digitalization: The IRS also continues to make significant progress scanning and e-filing paper returns.
- As of October, the IRS had scanned more than 1 million forms during the 2023 calendar year — more than 480,000 Forms 940, 579,000 Forms 941 and more than 90,000 Forms 1040. Digitization has far-reaching implications for improving IRS service. Digitizing paper returns will eliminate errors that result from manually inputting data from paper returns, which will speed up processing, reduce storage costs and allow IRS to focus more resources on customer service. Once paper returns are digitized, extracting the data will enable IRS customer service employees to answer taxpayer questions and resolve issues more quickly and accurately. Customer service employees do not currently have easy access to the information from paper returns and other correspondence submitted by mail. Digitization and data extraction will give them access to that information they need to better serve taxpayers.
Additional information:
- Strategic Operating Plan
- Taxpayer Experience Days
- Taxpayer Online Account
- Tax Information in Non-English Languages
