National Taxpayer Advocate Releases Annual Report to Congress, Says Tax Reform Is #1 Priority

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson today released her 2010 Annual Report to Congress, which lists the twenty-one most serious problems encountered by taxpayers (as required by § 7803(c)(2)(B)(ii)(III)):

• Executive Summary
• News Release
• Dedication, Preface, and Table of Contents
• IRS Information Release (IR-2011-02)

The Most Serious Problems Encountered by Taxpayers: Top 5 Issues

1. The Time for Tax Reform is Now
2. The IRS Mission Statement Does Not Reflect the Agency's Increasing Responsibilities for Administering Social Benefits Programs
3. IRS Performance Measures Provide Incentives that May Undermine the IRS Mission
4. The Wage & Investment Division is Tasked with Supporting Multiple Agency-Wide Operations, Impeding its Ability to Serve its Core Base of Individual Taxpayers Effectively
5. IRS Policy Implementation Though Systems Programming Lacks Transparency and Precludes Adequate Review

The Most Serious Problems Encountered by Taxpayers: Issues 6-21

• Problems 6-15: Taxpayer Rights Issues
• Problems 16-21: Tax Administration Issues

Additional Material:

• Status Updates on Previously Identified Problems
• Legislative Recommendations
• The Most Litigated Issues
• TAS Case Advocacy
• Appendices
• Volume 2: TAS Research and Related Studies

Press and blogosphere coverage:

• Bloomberg, Tax Code Dotted With Subsidies, Advocate Report Says
• CNN, Americans Spend 6.1 Billion Hours on Their Taxes
• Forbes, Tax Waste: 6.1 Billion Hours Spent Complying With Federal Tax Code
• Going Concern, Taxpayer Advocate Would Like the IRS to Quit Slapping Liens on People
• The Hill, Taxpayer Advocate: Time for Tax Reform
• Politico, IRS Tormenting Struggling Taxpayers
• USA Today, IRS Tax Liens Jump 60%, but How Effective Are They?
• Washington Post, Ombudsman's Report Says IRS Should Recast Itself