Taxpayer Bill of Rights: The Right to Quality Service

From the Desk of Lauran Corcoran

Taxpayer Bill of Rights: The Right to Quality Service

The Right to Quality Service: Taxpayers have the right to receive prompt, courteous, and professional assistance in their dealings with the IRS, to be spoken to in a way they can easily understand, to receive clear and easily understandable communications from the IRS, and to have a way to file complaints about inadequate service.

In short, there is not a lot of specifics provided to taxpayers on this right. However, the identification of quality service as a fundamental right of the taxpayer does mean that IRS is attempting to address this issue. When the Taxpayer Bill of Rights was formally enacted in 2014, IRS Commissioner John A. Koskinen stated, “While these rights have always been there for taxpayers, we think the time is right to highlight and showcase these rights for people to plainly see.”

What does The Right to Quality Service mean?

• The IRS must include information about your right to Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) assistance, and how to contact TAS, in all notices of deficiency.

• When collecting tax, the IRS should treat you with courtesy. Generally, the IRS should only contact you between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. The IRS should not contact you at your place of employment if the IRS knows or has reason to know that your employer does not allow such contacts.

• Certain notices written by the IRS must contain the name, phone number, and identifying number of the IRS employee, and all notices must include a telephone number that the taxpayer may contact. During a phone call or in-person interview, the IRS employee must provide you with his or her name and ID number.

If you missed last week’s post: Taxpayer Bill of Rights: The Right to Challenge the IRS’s Position and Be Heard