Prologue
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The 2023 Purple Book presents a concise summary of 65 legislative recommendations that the National Taxpayer Advocate believes will strengthen taxpayer rights and improve tax administration.
“Last year, I reported that the period since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the most challenging that taxpayers and tax professionals have ever faced. The bad news is that taxpayers and tax professionals experienced more misery in 2022. The good news is that since the close of the 2022 filing season, the IRS has made considerable progress in reducing the volume of unprocessed returns and correspondence. We have begun to see light at the end of the tunnel. I am just not sure how much further we need to travel before we see sunlight.”
Each year’s Annual Report to Congress identifies the ten most serious problems facing taxpayers and offers recommendations to fix them. These issues can affect taxpayers’ basic rights and the ways they pay taxes or receive refunds, even if they’re not involved in a dispute with the IRS. As your Voice at the IRS, the National Taxpayer Advocate uses the Annual Report to elevate these problems and recommend solutions to Congress and the highest levels of the IRS. Additionally, TAS has a Most Serious Problems At a Glance document breaking down the ten most serious problems taxpayers faced this year and related key statistics.
The section discusses the ten federal tax issues most frequently litigated during the preceding year and contains an analysis of cases petitioned in the Tax Court rather than simply decided cases, providing a much broader view of issues taxpayers bring to court.
In this section, TAS reports on some of its 2022 advocacy updates and highlights. We begin with a report from our Case Advocacy function, followed by a new report from our Systemic Advocacy function. The Advocate summarizes the National Taxpayer Advocate’s fiscal year (FY) 2022 Taxpayer Advocate Directives and share the Highlights of TAS Successes Throughout the Past Year.
We include Highlights of TAS Successes Throughout the Past Year to spotlight some of TAS’s accomplishments.
For the National Taxpayer Advocate, thorough research and analysis of current tax issues and trends is a vital part of the Annual Report. TAS research projects yield accurate, insightful data that informs her for taxpayers and strengthens her authority and arguments before the IRS and Congress.
The National Taxpayer Advocate’s Annual Report to Congress identifies taxpayers’ problems and provides suggestions to further protect taxpayer rights and ease taxpayer burden.
