2y ago

IRS will start simplifying its notices to taxpayers as agency continues modernization push

apnews.com /article/irs-revenues-tax-season-treasury-a9f6244d51bbd0a8fa2c12f6e49a635c

The IRS wants to rewrite its complicated letters to taxpayers and speak to people in plain English.

The federal tax collector is rewriting and sending out commonly received notices ahead of the 2024 tax filing season as part of its new “Simple Notice Initiative.”

“Redesigned notices will be shorter, clearer and easier to understand,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on a Tuesday call with reporters to preview the initiative. “Taxpayers will see the difference when they open the mail and when they log into their online accounts.”

The 2024 tax season begins on January 29.

8 comments

You know that for 90% of people, they could just tell everyone how much they owe and call it good?
Like there’s zero need for us to file taxes because they already know how much we spent. Over all, people would be taxed less because there’s no need to itemize deductions in what is meant to be an obtusely arcane process fundamentally designed to benefit the other 10% while creating an entire industry…
But details.
- That's how it is here.
  I get a letter stating how much I owe or will get reimbursed from the information they have.
  If I have additional revenue or tax deductions that aren't listed in the prefilled forms, I can add them and submit them (or have a tax accountant do it).
  The letter comes with an envelope that doesn't need postage.
  Most people don't have to do anything but simply see money appear on their bank account or pay what they owe by a certain date and that's that.
  EDIT: Oh and we can access our taxes online with our national IDs.
  So while you can opt to do everything on paper, you or your tax accountant can do your taxes online instead of filling in the forms in case the prefilled forms missed anything. The website will have the same info prefilled as the papers did.
  And the taxes website has help sections and information popups to explain pretty much every single tax code imaginable.
  
  That’s how it is here.
  I imagine that's how it is in every sane country, yeah.
  I get a letter stating how much I owe or will get reimbursed from the information they have.
  If I have additional revenue or tax deductions that aren’t listed in the prefilled forms, I can add them and submit them (or have a tax accountant do it).
  Does anybody every admit to more income? lol.
  The letter comes with an envelope that doesn’t need postage.
  That's nice. just rubbing it in, are we?
  (lol. sorry, couldn't resist.)
Fuck intuit
Just tell us the balance, Janet.
Will I have to also read several paragraphs about the fact that this notice is written in plain English thanks to an initiative sponsored by so and so before I can actually read the notice?
Dear Taxpayer,
You pay $xxx.xx or we [REDACTED] you.
t. Taxman/woman/xer
- From the article:
  More than 170 million notices are sent out annually by the IRS to taxpayers regarding credits, deductions and taxes owed. The notices are often needlessly long and filled with legal jargon — forcing many confused taxpayers to call the agency and jam up the phone lines.
  Simpler notices in plain language will help people understand their tax liability and improve tax enforcement, said IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, who said the initiative is paid for with funding from Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act.
  Why do you have a problem with that?

8 comments