Monday, November 21, 2011

THE REPORT OF THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE ADVISORY COUNCIL



The purpose of the IRSAC is to provide an organized forum for discussion of relevant tax administration issues between Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials and representatives of the public.  Advisory council members convey the public’s perception of professional standards and best practices for tax professionals and IRS activities, offer constructive observations regarding current or proposed IRS policies, programs, and procedures, and suggest improvements to IRS operations.”

IRSAC draws its members from the tax professional community and members of academia.

Below are some of the recommendations in the report.  Any highlights are mine.

According to the report, the Council feels “The IRS must receive adequate funding commensurate with its ever-increasing responsibilities and workload to remain effective. The IRSAC is concerned that both taxpayers and the tax system will suffer without consistent and adequate levels of funding”, and recommends -

Congress should appropriately fund the IRS to assure continued success in service, compliance and enforcement. Without adequate funding, both taxpayers and the tax system will continue to suffer. IRS personnel must receive the appropriate tools and technology to perform effectively. Advances in private sector technology are outpacing a resource challenged IRS at a time when it is most important for the IRS to continue to improve its technology (and increase its full-time staff) if it is to operate effectively. The IRS will continue to face difficult decisions with respect to allocating limited resources between the compliance, enforcement and service functions. While IRSAC recognizes the extreme importance of service to taxpayers, we also recognize that increased compliance and enforcement efforts are critical to the proper functioning of our voluntary tax system and cannot be ignored due to budgetary constraints.

The IRSAC recommends that resource allocation decisions focus on ensuring that the service, compliance and enforcement efforts of the IRS are properly balanced. Inappropriately allocated limited service or enforcement resources may serve only to foster future noncompliance. Encouraging future compliance is of parallel importance to punishing prior non-compliance. Tax administration is a constantly evolving process that must be able to react quickly, efficiently and effectively.”

Regarding the new Schedule D procedures, with the new Form 8949, the Council recommends -

Encourage the brokerage houses providing substitute Forms 1099-B to be consistent in reporting with the format of Form 8949. This will aid the taxpayer and preparer in uploading multiple transactions in a standard spreadsheet or other electronic format, thereby making reporting as error free as possible.”

I am pleased that the Council made the following recommendation concerning the Form 1098-T issued by educational institutions -

Require that Form 1098-T report payments received during the year. With the change to only payments received being reported, the IRS will need transition rules so that amounts billed in the prior year do not get counted twice as amounts billed would be payments received in the subsequent year.”

As I have said in the past - the Form 1098-T as currently issued by most colleges is basically “tits on a bull”.  For the most part the Form 1098-Ts that I get from clients are totally useless.  The form tells how much was billed – but not how much was actually paid.  Who cares how much was “billed” - I need to know how much was paid!  

The report also made this suggestion -

Require eligible educational institutions to distribute two Forms 1098-T to any student that is both an undergraduate and graduate student in the same calendar year. Alternatively, the 1098-T could be redesigned to provide a box for undergraduate payments received and a box for graduate payments received, along with applicable checkboxes.”

RDF

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