On the recordMarch 23, 2022
Madam President, Tax Day 2022 is fast approaching. Americans around the country are prepping their tax returns. If you talked to most Americans, I don't think you would find that the IRS is their favorite government Agency and with good reason. The Agency has gained a reputation for poor taxpayer service. The last tax filing season was particularly miserable for taxpayers. ``If you call the IRS, there is only a 1-in-50 chance that you'll reach a human being,'' noted a headline in the Washington Post last April. The national Taxpayer Advocate noted in her 2021 report to Congress: Calendar year 2021 was surely the most challenging year taxpayers and tax professionals have ever experienced--long processing and refund delays, difficulty reaching the IRS by phone, correspondence that went unprocessed for many months, collection notices issued while taxpayer correspondence was awaiting processing, little or no information on the Where's My Refund? tool for delayed returns. . . . And bad customer service isn't the only thing tarnishing the IRS's reputation. The IRS has also gained a reputation for mishandling the confidential taxpayer information it has access to. In fact, the IRS was recently subject to a massive leak or hack of private taxpayer information--information that somehow ended up in the hands of advocates at ProPublica, an outfit that promotes progressive causes and went on to publish taxpayers' private information last June.…





