LaHood introduces an Act that could improve IRS communication

By Benjamin Cox on March 22, 2018 at 9:10am

Contacting the IRS may become a little bit easier if Congressman Darin LaHood gets his way. On Tuesday, LaHood introduced H.R. 5342, the Improving Assistance for Taxpayers Act. This Act would strengthen protections for taxpayers by requiring the Internal Revenue Services, or IRS, to respond in a timely manner to Taxpayer Assistance Directives issued by the Taxpayer Advocate Service.

The Act was introduced to the Ways and Means committee, which oversees the IRS.

Congressman LaHood says a common complaint he receives is how unresponsive the IRS is to the community. The Congressman explains what the Act and why it should be put in place.

“The IRS has not been responsive in a timely way with those directives, so what our bill does, it says within 30 days, of one of those directives being sent,  they need to follow up with a response directly or a written response either verbally or in writing. What this will do is hold the IRS accountable to everyday people who have concerns with the IRS. We introduced it, we’ve have had bipartisan support on the bill in the Ways and Means committee. We hope to have it have a vote in the committee later this year and bring it to the house floor for a vote.” LaHood said.

Since introducing the Act, LaHood says he’s received a lot of support.

“There has been a recognition, again on both sides, republicans and democrats that we have to hold the IRS accountable and have to make them more user friendly. That is not a partisan issue, so I think we will have bipartisan support and broad support in the committee on it. What I think is a common sense way to help fix the IRS and make them more user friendly to tax payers” said LaHood

Should the Act move forward, voting on it will take place at the end of the year.