IRS provides additional day through Wednesday, April 18 to file and pay your 2017 taxes

Yesterday, the IRS experienced system issues and was unable to accept tax returns.  The processing systems are back online today. The IRS announced it will provide an additional day to file your federal income tax return and pay your balance due.  If your 2017 tax return was due on April 17, 2018, you now have until today, Wednesday, April 18 to timely file and pay your 2017 federal t...

NTA Blog: What’s wrong with IRS user fees?

Subscribe to the NTA’s Blog and receive updates on the latest blog posts from National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson. Additional blogs from the National Taxpayer Advocate can be found at www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/blog. The IRS has been increasing user fees to fund its operations. It recently increased or proposed to increase a wide range of fees including the fees for installment a...

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson testifies on Oversight before several House Subcommittees

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson testified before the House Subcommittee on Health Care, Benefits, and Administrative Rules and Subcommittee on Government Operations Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Oversight today at a hearing entitled, “Continued Oversight Over the Internal Revenue Service.” The following is an excerpt from her written testimony: Thro...

NTA Blog: The IRS Can Do a Better Job Providing Military Taxpayers With Accurate and Up-to-Date Information About Tax Issues They Are Facing

Subscribe to the NTA’s Blog and receive updates on the latest blog posts from National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson. Additional blogs from the National Taxpayer Advocate can be found at www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/blog. As we near the end of the 2018 filing season, it is worth reflecting on the challenges taxpayers face in complying with complex tax law provisions. In my 2017 Annual...

Colloquium on Tax and the Sharing Economy at Villanova University

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson spoke to law students at Villanova University at an event sponsored by the Tax Law Society and the Women’s Law Caucus. A Pennsylvania native, Ms. Olson spoke about her unorthodox career path as a private practitioner, business-owner, social entrepreneur and public advocate. The following day, Nina Olson participated in a colloquium on Tax and the Shar...

Success Story: TAS Helps Disabled Veteran Receive Portions of Her Refunds from Three Years

Every year the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) helps thousands of people with tax problems. This story is only one of many examples of how TAS helps resolve taxpayer issues. All personal details are removed to protect the privacy of the taxpayer. While participating in a Veterans’ Stand Down event, a married couple, both whom are disabled veterans, approached TAS employees about a tax pro...

NTA Blog: A Digital “Mailbox Rule” Is Required As the IRS Steers Taxpayers Toward Self-Help Digital Tools

Subscribe to the NTA’s Blog and receive updates on the latest blog posts from National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson. Additional blogs from the National Taxpayer Advocate can be found at www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/blog. As the IRS steers taxpayers toward self-help digital tools, it is necessary to bring the “statutory mailbox rule” into the 21st century. Currently, the s...

NTA Blog: An Analysis of Tax Settlement Programs as Amnesties: A Discussion of Belated Alternatives to the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program and Recommendations for Further Improvements (Part 3 of 3)

Subscribe to the NTA’s Blog and receive updates on the latest blog posts from National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson. Additional blogs from the National Taxpayer Advocate can be found at www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/blog. In the first blog in this series we discussed how those who participate in amnesties also tend to be people who made inadvertent errors, that is, “benign&rdquo...

Disaster Relief: Many businesses have extra time to request a six-month extension due to winter storms

The IRS has a disaster assistance and emergency relief page for individuals and businesses, which includes special tax law provisions, to help taxpayers and businesses recover financially from the impact of a disaster, especially when the federal government declares their location to be a major disaster area. The IRS recently granted many businesses affected by severe winter storms additional t...

New tax law brings changes to tax withholding for 2018; here’s what you need to know

Major tax reform was approved by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Dec. 22, 2017. One change directly affected the rate at which taxes are withheld from paychecks. Our federal income tax is a pay-as-you-go tax system and there are two ways to pay as you go, either through withholding or estimated tax payments.If you are an employee, your employer may withhold income tax from your pay. Yo...