As Taxpayer Service Suffers – IRS Puts More

Emphasis on Enforcement

The IRS’s recently released Strategic Plan is a chilling plot to “increase data

driven enforcement” by, among other things, dramatically increasing its

access to private information about you, your job or business and your

family. The driving philosophy behind this new attack is the fact that the

IRS believes you are a tax cheater, and because of that, the agency believes

that it,

• Must have enough information to know everything you do, including

when and how you do it,

• Must have enough information to be able to attack your tax return

even at the point of when you file it, and

• Must share your information not only with other federal, state and

local tax agencies, but even with foreign governments to allow them

to enforce both tax and non-tax laws.

The IRS is constantly working to get more of your private date because, in

its own words, “where there is data, there is compliance.” Even the 2 billion

information returns (Forms W-2 and 1099) filed every year is just not

enough to give the IRS the data it thinks it needs about you.

Even while computerized audits are exploding, IRS efforts to help honest

citizens are plummeting. Taxpayers’ services are at their lowest levels in

more than a decade, proving that, rather than help people comply with the

law, the IRS would rather grind people into financial powder if they don’t

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comply. For example, the IRS:

• Is unlikely to answer even half the approximately 100 million phone

calls it receives,

• Has eliminated tax return preparation assistance altogether,

• Will answer far fewer tax law questions than in the past, and

• Will answer no tax law questions after April 15, leaving those who

file extensions on their own.

Don’t let your listeners be victimized by the IRS this tax season. Dan Pilla

can help by answering these and any other important questions your listeners

may have:

• How will the IRS carry out its plan for “data driven enforcement?”

• They tell us tax audit rates are down. How does that square with what

you’re saying about more audits?

• What is the best way to handle a computer notice from the IRS?

• How are people targeted for audit?

• What can we do to avoid audits in the first place?

Dan Pilla is the nation’s leading taxpayers’ rights advocate and has been for

more than 30 years. He can help your listeners stay out of trouble with the

IRS.

“Dan Pilla probably knows more about the IRS than the

commissioner.”

— The Associated Press

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