IRS Practitioner Priority Questions

In a recent article published in The Federal Tax Alert from the NSTP (National Society of Tax Professionals) member Robert Wunderle, Director, La Posada Tax Clinic in Twin Falls, Idaho, recently experienced questionable actions of IRS personnel on the Practitioner Priority Service Line.

This article sparked some concern to me and I felt that taxpayers, along with all tax advocates and tax resolution firms should take great heed to Robert's article. The following is the text from this article.

Robert called the PPS line about a client. He was asked two additional questions never asked of him before:

"Can you tell me where your client works?"

"Can you tell me where your client banks?"

The questions were posed to verify that he was the clients' true representative, but something did not seem right.

He pursued the matter and asked the purpose of the questions. He was told that it is policy. Customer Service Representatives, CSR's were required to ask them. Robert further asked if the questions were designed to facilitate the issuing of levies. The CSR acknowledged that they were. The CSR also offered that answering the questions was totally optional.

The CSR that Robert spoke with made it clear that she and her colleagues did not like having to ask the questions. Robert felt that calling the IRS for advice, information or to simply update the IRS on the status of a case should not require a taxpayer or their representative to disclose this type of information.

Robert pursued this issue by submitting a systemic issue Form 911 with the National Taxpayer Advocate. The response from Nina Olson, National Taxpayer Advocate, follows:

"From my perspective as the NTA, if a taxpayer is calling the IRS general information line or a representative is calling the practitioner hotline, it is inappropriate for the IRS's first questions to be "Where do you work" and "Where is your bank account." The IRS must first ascertain what the taxpayer is calling about. For example, if the taxpayer is calling with a tax law question pertaining to a return he is filling out, immediately probing about potential collection sources may cause that taxpayer to (1) end the call and file the return incorrectly, or (2) end the call and not file at all."

I fail to see how the IRS's approach described in the original email furthers effective tax administration or encourages voluntary compliance. I have constantly urged the IRS to look at contacts with taxpayers, including the exam and collection context, as opportunities to educate taxpayers and work with them to bring them into voluntary compliance. My office is looking into the practices described by the original email to see if this is standard practice for the IRS. If it is, we will advocate for cessation of an changes to this practice.

In closing, I applaud Robert's efforts to be a true tax advocate and put his client's best interest in the fore front.

S. Raines, Sr. Financial Advisor/Tax Preparer

www.effectur.com