The Taxpayer First Act of 2018 - The good, the bad, and the meaningless

The Taxpayer First Act of 2018 - The good, the bad, and the meaningless

A new bill, The Taxpayer First Act of 2018 has bipartisan support and it is making its way through Congress. In this video, tax attorney Anthony Parent gives his reaction to the summary presented by the Subcommittee on Oversight of the House Ways and Means. While there are some helpful items in the bill -- in particular, more formal independence of the IRS office of appeals and the availability of the IRS Office of Appeals in more cases (pre-notice of federal tax lien filing, hopefully ), a crack down on structuring seizures of cash under the guise of the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, and required notice of third party contact (the IRS can be very sneaky in an audit situation) Yet, a lot of the rest of the bill might do little to help taxpayers. - An insistence on calling taxpayer “customers;” - A waiver of an Offer in Compromise fee for the destitute who probably lack the resources to actually submit a viable Form 656 OIC; - A formal declaration of stated Innocent Spouse/Equitable relief policy; - A formalized grant structure for VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) Program, - A generalized idea of "better" "customer" service - A formal notification process for when the IRS shut downs (already overworked) service centers (that can't really help taxpayers all that much and often leave them with bad information) - A rule allowing IRS employees to refer low income taxpayers to Low Income Tax Clinics (you mean they couldn't before???!!) - Then a whole bunch of vague identity theft protections without once mentioning that the #1 cause of ID theft is illegal immigrants stealing Social Security numbers. - A promise to modernize the IRS's IT (this will likely be yet another waste of money; the IRS has been attempting to modernize since the LBJ administration with little luck as there are too many competing goals - The ability to pay the IRS by credit card or debit card directly (but taxpayers will still be charged a user fee -- likely around 2%) The bill will likely pass, and we do anticipate it being an overall help, but it can not cure the fatal conceit of the personal income tax that was specifically designed to strip power from individuals and shift most of it in Washington, DC. Parent & Parent LLP 144 South Main Street Wallingford, CT 06492 (203) 269-6699 info@irsmedic.com https://youtu.be/1BbWhP4maRU IRS Medic