Category: IRS News

There is plenty of work for licensed tax professionals interested in IRS Representation (i.e. IRS Tax Resolution and IRS Exam Representation)

In case you have been hiding under a rock, the IRS has been growing. This is thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act and the now just under $60 billion they are due to receive from 2022 to 2032. They have been hiring like crazy. The IRS just announced at the IRS Tax Forum that we recently attended that they have hired 2,000 Revenue Officers recently giving them 9,000 total across the U.S. They are expecting this to get over 10,000 total in the next 6 months.

What does that mean for you? The IRS is coming after your client (or prospect) soon and there is going to be a lot more work coming your way. So, get your marketing ready.

Below is a list of areas of focus for the IRS in the coming years.

Ensuring high-income taxpayers pay taxes owed

The IRS is working to ensure high-income filers pay the taxes they owe. Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, more than a decade of budget cuts prevented IRS from keeping pace with the increasingly complicated set of tools that the wealthiest taxpayers use to hide their income and evade paying their share. The IRS is now taking swift and aggressive action to close this gap.

• Pursuing tax-evading millionaires. In recent months, IRS Criminal Investigation has closed a lengthy list of cases in which wealthy taxpayers have been sentenced for tax evasion, money laundering and filing false tax returns. Instead of paying taxes owed, these evaders spent money owed to the government on gambling, vacations and luxury goods. (Oh, and did we say that the IRS Criminal Investigation division has a 90% conviction rate.)

• Making delinquent millionaires pay up. In recent months, IRS closed about 175 delinquent tax cases for millionaires, generating $38 million in recoveries. IRS will continue to pursue millionaires who do not pay their taxes as the agency ramps up enforcement capabilities through the Inflation Reduction Act. Examples of schemes IRS is now pursuing include:
  •  High-dollar scheme exploiting Puerto Rico. IRS recently identified about 100 high-income individuals claiming benefits in Puerto Rico without meeting the residence and source rules involving U.S. possessions. These wealthy individuals are attempting to avoid U.S. taxation on U.S. source income, and IRS expects many of these cases to proceed to criminal investigation.

• • Pension arrangements

The IRS announced on July 24, 2023 a new policy change regarding Revenue Officers

As part of a larger transformation effort, the Internal Revenue Service today announced a major policy change that will end most unannounced visits to taxpayers by agency revenue officers to reduce public confusion and enhance overall safety measures for taxpayers and employees.

The change reverses a decades-long practice by IRS revenue officers, the unarmed agency employees whose duties include visiting households and businesses to help taxpayers resolve their account balances by collecting unpaid taxes and unfiled tax returns. Effective immediately, unannounced visits will end except in a few unique circumstances and will be replaced with mailed letters to schedule meetings.

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel announced the change as part of a larger effort to transform IRS operations following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act last year and the creation of the new IRS Strategic Operating Plan in April.

“We are taking a fresh look at how the IRS operates to better serve taxpayers and the nation, and making this change is a common-sense step,” Werfel said. “Changing this long-standing procedure will increase confidence in our tax administration work and improve overall safety for taxpayers and IRS employees.”

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) supports the policy change.

“NTEU welcomes the IRS decision to halt unannounced visits by IRS Field Collection employees,” said Tony Reardon, National President of the National Treasury Employees Union “The safety of IRS employees is of paramount importance and this decision will help protect those whose jobs have only grown more dangerous in recent years because of false, inflammatory rhetoric about the agency and its workforce. We applaud Commissioner Werfel’s quick action after hearing the safety concerns raised by NTEU leaders and IRS Field Collection employees who faced dangerous situations that put their safety at risk. We look forward to working with the IRS on this and other actions to protect the safety of all IRS employees.”

Werfel also noted that there have been increased security concerns in recent years on multiple fronts. The growth in scam artists bombarding taxpayers has increased confusion about home visits by IRS revenue officers. Sometimes scam artists appear at the door posing as IRS agents, creating confusion for not just the taxpayers living there but local law-enforcement.

For IRS revenue officers, these unannounced visits to homes and businesses presented risks. Revenue officers routinely faced hazards and uncertainty making unannounced visits to attempt … Continue reading