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If you receive information from the IRS that doesn’t belong to you, this is known as an inadvertent unauthorized disclosure. Examples include other taxpayer information sent to you by mistake or information belonging to another taxpayer included with your tax information. This could be information you received by mail, e-mail, fax or transmitted via electronic…

The IRS announced in June that it was entering the next stage of Employee Retention Credit (ERC) work and that following a review of submitted claims, it plans to deny tens of thousands of improper high-risk, “erroneous” ERC claims while starting a new round of processing lower-risk claims to help eligible taxpayers.   The announcement…

Are you still waiting for the IRS to issue a refund for a deceased taxpayer’s tax year  2022 or 2023 final income tax return?  You are not alone.  The IRS significantly delayed issuing refunds for final income tax returns filed with an attached Form 1310, Statement of Person Claiming Refund Due a Deceased Taxpayer.  …

When you get married, your tax situation changes. Your marital status as of December 31 determines your tax filing options for the entire year. State law determines whether you are married. If you’re married at year-end, you have two filing status choices: Filing jointly with your new spouse (Married Filing Jointly) or Filing separate from…

Sadly, we have all heard stories of people falling victim to financial scams. Scams can take many forms and often harm our most vulnerable citizens. For example, many of us have received phone calls or other types of messages from fraudsters impersonating IRS or law enforcement officials threatening jail time if a fabricated tax debt…

July 26, 2024 – The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is happy to announce that our website is now available in 13 different languages. This expansion began back in 2022 with Spanish and now includes 11 of the other languages that are most widely used in the United States. “I am so excited that we can provide…

July 29, 2024 – Congress establishes certain refundable credits to assist taxpayers with particular expenses. In an attempt to prevent improper claims of these credits, Congress authorizes the IRS to ban taxpayers from claiming certain refundable credits for two years if it determines that the taxpayers claimed the credit(s) due to reckless or intentional disregard…

July 25, 2024 – The IRS Nationwide Tax Forums are back and in full swing this summer, and the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) just successfully concluded the first forum held in Chicago from July 9-11. There are many reasons to attend the IRS Nationwide Tax Forums, including getting continuing education credits, attending workshops, participating in focus…

July 18, 2024 – I’ve discussed the good and bad IRS responses to the administrative recommendations in my 2023 Annual Report to Congress. Now, it’s time to address the concerning responses that need improvement. Two Most Serious Problems – international information return (IIR) penalties and compliance challenges faced by taxpayers abroad – had disappointing responses from…

July 16, 2024 – Part of my job as the National Taxpayer Advocate is to hold the IRS accountable for operating in a manner that is fair, transparent, and efficient while upholding the rights of taxpayers. My 2023 Annual Report to Congress included several recommendations to improve IRS operations and protect taxpayer rights. To its credit,…