Status: Closed
Completion Date: 03/31/2023

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) continued to advocate for improvements in IRS hiring, recruitment, and employee training processes during the first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 by advocating for the Direct Hire Authority (DHA). TAS believes it is one of the best ways to expedite the current hiring process to hire individuals into the competitive civil service in permanent or nonpermanent positions by bypassing obstacles to allow for quicker hiring. The National Taxpayer Advocate will recommend in her 2022 Annual Report to Congress (ARC) the IRS pursue DHA for more critical positions across the service. Also, the NTA will recommend in the ARC that IRS reallocate budgetary resources to invest in a web-based personnel security inventory management system to upgrade current IRS background investigation system technology to eliminate antiquated processes, reduce manual workload, and improve interconnection with other systems. Further, TAS hired a new analyst to manage our interview and career pathing program. The program manager began by engaging in knowledge transfer activities to learn the program and our organizational goals. The program manager then worked to develop a plan that analyzes potential options to improve and streamline the IRS interview and selection process.

2nd Quarter: TAS continued advocating for improvements in IRS hiring, recruitment, and employee training processes in the second quarter of 2023 through several activities. We recommended the IRS reallocate additional budgetary resources to their Strategic Talent Analytics and Recruitment Solutions (STARS) team so it can implement an updated Strategic Recruitment Plan to increase recruitment partnerships with private sector recruiting firms, universities, community colleges, and any other sources where diverse and qualified applicants may be underemployed. While the IRS made improvements in the hiring process, TAS identified certain barriers still exist, including the security clearance and fingerprinting processes (fingerprinting appointment availability continues to be a challenge) which is impacting the pace of hiring. To further streamline the personnel security and employee screening processes, TAS recommended IRS reallocate budgetary resources to invest in a web-based personnel security inventory management system to upgrade current background investigation system technology to eliminate antiquated processes, reduce manual workload, and improve interconnection with other systems. TAS also encouraged IRS’ Human Capital Office (HCO) to work with the Facilities Management and Security Services, the Treasury Department, and other stakeholders to consider additional ways to shorten the security clearance, background check, and fingerprinting processes, including by considering outsourcing parts of the process to additional contractors.

Further, TAS contributed four members to an IRS University service wide analyst training team, who have driven the identification of analyst training needs and curriculum that includes a capstone exercise.  The team completed their assignment with recommendations forwarded by IRS University team leaders for HCO next steps determination.

This objective is closed.

Status: Closed
Completion Date: 09/30/2023

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) initiated several activities to address this objective during the first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 by working with internal functions to develop new training courses. Also, we assessed the effectiveness of new training courses and worked with IRS on a servicewide analyst training that should be completed by March 2023. Further, we plan to expand internal courses related to examination and collection for our case advocates. TAS will continue to expand training during the second quarter FY 2023.

​During the first quarter, TAS initiated a coaching program to enhance coaching skills training for our managers. We provided informational sessions to various internal audiences on the value of coaching. Further, we partnered with the IRS Human Capital Office (HCO) to pair managers and non-bargaining unit employees with a certified coach. And, in the second quarter, we will launch our Mentoring Program that’ll be open to all TAS employees.

2nd Quarter: TAS continues to support and expand the TAS leadership development programs to provide employees with tools and opportunities to grow in their careers.

TAS continued to support and expand leadership development programs during the second quarter of 2023. Since the TAS Leadership Succession Review (LSR) Program launched in October 2022, we have conducted several LSR information sessions about the purpose of a LSR, the four LSR stages, and emphasized the importance of initiating self-learning activities that’ll support the career investment. Further, our Leadership Development office emphasized the importance of initiating self-learning activities that’ll support the career investment and posted several TAS-wide messages that provided LSR resources. Also, the TAS Mentoring Program Manager successfully launched the re-vitalized TAS Mentoring Program on February 27, 2023. The mentoring portal is now open and on March 20, 2023, the protégé portal opens. We will continue to enhance this activity by pairing mentors to proteges, establishing expectations of both roles with participants, monitoring for progress of the program then make adjustments, and continuing to recruit for continued participation.

3rd Quarter: During the third quarter, TAS facilitated monthly analyst discussions and workshops to improve the service we provide taxpayers. Through these workshops, analysts refined their ability to evaluate data, identify improvement opportunities, and develop action plans to correct deficiencies in casework. TAS has engaged IRS University and is gathering agency-wide standards for analysts. Also, we continued to strengthen the new hire Case Advocate Training Support program by collecting survey results and we plan to conduct focus groups with the frontline managers and program graduates in the fourth quarter.

4th Quarter: During the fourth quarter, TAS developed an analyst training curriculum focused on improving competencies, including Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threat (SWOT) analysis. Also, we shared the comprehensive analyst curriculum with all TAS leaders and is working to create an automated tracking tool. Rollout planned for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2024.

Further, TAS partnered seasoned analysts with new analysts to improve competencies and we launched a new initiative named the Peer Manager Mentor Program. The program establishes a continual process to pair newly selected managers with a seasoned manager to help them become oriented with the scope of their managerial responsibilities and discover leadership best practices. To date, we’ve paired nine new leaders with a seasoned mentor and the key to the success of the program is to pair the new leader with a peer who is in a like position and optimally in the same reporting structure. TAS’ Leadership Development Office continues to grow participation of mentors and proteges through continuing education of the benefits of the program. We also created the “Case Advocate Training Support (CATS) Feedback Form” to provide information regarding our services provided to managers or employees. This expands the input to include BU and NBU employees in TAS. We will continue to refine the program based on employee comments.

This objective is closed.

Status: Closed
Completion Date: 06/30/2023

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) continued working with IRS’ training strategy during the first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 through several activities. We participated on the IRS University teams to assist in creating uniform Servicewide Analyst training and curating LinkedIn courses by occupation and leveraged our certified instructors for cross-functional leadership and Service Wide Analyst Training (SWAT).

2nd Quarter: TAS continued to collaborate in developing the IRS’s training strategy through multiple activities including providing employees to work on a team with IRS University to develop a new agency-wide analyst training program and addressing gaps for all new hires. Also, we identified the need for providing a new Welcome to TAS training to provide a better employee experience and improve retention of all new hires.

3rd Quarter: During the third quarter, TAS supported the IRS training strategy for the workforce of tomorrow, through it’s many iterations and changes in leadership and direction. We provided subject matter experts to the new Human Capital Transformation team in partnership with IRS University to kick off and start working on implementing the Inflation Reduction Act Strategic Operating Plan (SOP) Initiative, Help Employees Grow and Develop. TAS will continue to support the IRS’s training strategy as it continues to implement the SOP as the need arises.

Also, TAS identified obstacles the IRS faces in meeting its training goals, such as gaps in welcoming new hires, cross-functional leadership training and Servicewide Analyst Training (SWAT). We identified practices to overcome or minimize the obstacles to effective training by using our certified instructors and developing a new Welcome to TAS program. Lastly, we collaborated with the IRS to provide recommendations for improved IRS training and a strategy for a servicewide Analyst training track. TAS committed a team and has overseen the TAS partnering with IRS University in the creation of a servicewide Analyst training track.

This objective is now closed.

Status: Closed
Completion Date: 09/30/2023

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) continued to support and expand our leadership development program during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2023 through several actions including employing a new program manager to manage the TAS Leadership Succession Review (LSR). The program manager began by engaging in knowledge transfer activities, met with other TAS employees, developed a project plan, and analyzed our current succession plan to identify potential risks and identify steps to mitigate those risks.

2nd Quarter: TAS continues to support and expand the TAS leadership development programs to provide employees with tools and opportunities to grow in their careers.

TAS continued to support and expand leadership development programs during the second quarter of 2023. Since the TAS Leadership Succession Review (LSR) Program launched in October 2022, we have conducted several LSR information sessions about the purpose of a LSR, the four LSR stages, and emphasized the importance of initiating self-learning activities that’ll support the career investment. Further, our Leadership Development office emphasized the importance of initiating self-learning activities that’ll support the career investment and posted several TAS-wide messages that provided LSR resources. Also, the TAS Mentoring Program Manager successfully launched the re-vitalized TAS Mentoring Program on February 27, 2023. The mentoring portal is now open and on March 20, 2023, the protégé portal opens. We will continue to enhance this activity by pairing mentors to proteges, establishing expectations of both roles with participants, monitoring for progress of the program then make adjustments, and continuing to recruit for continued participation.

3rd Quarter: TAS launched the Leadership Succession Review (LSR) Program in October 2022 and has conducted several TAS-wide LSR informational sessions about its purpose, the four LSR stages, and emphasized the importance of initiating self-learning activities that’ll support the career investment. Currently, TAS has over 300 LSR participants, which includes frontline employees and all levels of management. Also, we are conducting targeted focus groups among newly hired TAS managers to develop a formal peer-to-peer new TAS manager mentoring program.

4th Quarter: During the fourth quarter, the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) completed its stage 4 Leadership Succession Review (LSR) process, shifting the focus back to the individual and having feedback sessions with his/her manager. As of September 19, 2023, there are 392 LSR participants and the report shows a participant increase of 14 in the 81 days. During the quarter, the Leadership Development Office hosted four informational workshops that informed and educated employees and managers of the purpose of LSR and emphasized the value of an individual career learning plan. Also during the fourth quarter, the TAS Coaching Program focused on supporting leadership growth that builds collaborative relationships centered on trust and rapport that’ll build a plan for success. The program delivers virtual interactive coaching skills training to TAS managers and non-bargaining unit analysts to educate on the definition of coaching and help leaders turn day-to-day challenges into opportunities for employee learning and growth. The TAS Coaching Program also facilitates leaders obtaining coaches through the IRS Certified Coaching Program as part of their professional development. In Fiscal Year 2023, the TAS Coaching Program delivered coaching skills training to approximately 80 percent of our leaders (216 total) and paired over 170 TAS managers and non-bargaining unit (NBU) analysts with coaches. Currently, TAS has four NBU employees who have completed training to become certified coaches, and three additional employees who are currently in training to become certified.

This objective is closed.

Status: Closed
Completion Date: 03/31/2023

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (​TAS) continued to implement our recruitment strategy during the first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 through several areas including having our Financial Operations division work with TAS’ executive leadership, other senior leaders, and partnering with IRS’ Human Capital Office (HCO) Strategic Talent Acquisition and Recruiting Services (STARS) team to use a combination of environmental scans, social media, USAJobs Talent Pool Data, and other resources to identify potential applicants so we remain at the forefront of their employment opportunities. Further, we will continue to consider all options to include diverse recruiting, including: Special Hiring Authority, Schedule A Hiring, Veteran Hiring Programs, the Veteran’s Repository, Internships, and High School and College Student Hiring to identify and recruit new employees. Also, we are tracking events through internal databases on National-Level activities, including Virtual job fairs, USA Jobs info sessions, IRS info sessions, TAS and IRS websites, videos and social media. Through HCO STARS, and with additional support from the IRS’s Social Media Team, we have access to numerous platforms, including: IRS news, CIRCA, Event bright, Handshake, Indeed, LinkedIn/LinkedIn Recruiter, Yello, Purple Briefcase, YouTube, ListServe messages to hundreds of external agencies, and more. Lastly, TAS is in the process of hiring a permanent Recruiting Analyst for the stand-up of the TAS Recruiting Program to ensure we remain competitive in a job market which is increasingly tight.

2nd Quarter: TAS partnered with IRS on recruitment events focusing on hiring internally and externally which led to the socializing of positions on several social media platforms, the direct messaging of potential applicants for hard to fill positions, the use of Local Taxpayer Advocates to do recruitment in their outreach events, and the offering of employee referral bonuses to current employees. During the remainder of the fiscal year, TAS will further refine our recruitment plans and focus on ways to increase applicants from a variety of backgrounds with the desired skills and experience, including individuals from underserved and diverse communities. Further, TAS hired a permanent TAS Recruiting Analyst to stand-up the TAS Recruiting Program, which will ensure TAS remains competitive in a job market which is increasingly tight.

This objective is complete.

Status: Open
Expected Completion Date: 03/31/2024

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) continued to implement our revamped training program during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2023. TAS has extended the hiring team in our Centralized Case Intake (CCI) unit for an additional year to continue supporting expedited hiring and training. Further, TAS supported the IRS University model and activities related to its ongoing operations. Also, we created a new orientation training program for all new employees.  The orientation will be lead by TAS Executives and Senior Leaders to welcome newly hired employees to the organization. The training will provide insight into TAS, describe how the organization operates, help employees to recognize and understand our core values, and provide resources for employees seeking additional information. Lastly, TAS worked to finalize the manager curriculum course listing, worked to identify which TAS managers had completed what training, and identified courses that require further development.

2nd Quarter: During the second quarter of 2023, TAS continued to implement our revamped training program to develop our new employees while ensuring our existing employees’ technical and soft skills are consistently strengthened with a focus on allowing our employees to grow professionally while providing taxpayers expert service. Specific actions we took included, collaborating among our internal functions to determine how to best support TAS leadership in hiring, onboarding, and training employees moving forward, assessing our On-the-job Working & Learning (OWL) pilot to identify gaps and improvements of the training and support of New Hire Case Advocates (NHC), assessing the NHC experience, needs, and knowledge gaps, committing a team to serve as subject matter experts in the development of IRS University School of TAS and support other IRS University development plans for curriculum. Further, TAS completed the full development and implementation of the Welcome to TAS training and continued the development of the manager curriculum that incorporates a mix of IRS cross-functional courses, technical skill courses, and soft skill courses.

3rd Quarter: During the third quarter, TAS supported leadership in training employees. We brought two detailees in to hiring analysts roles to increase support. We implemented the new model for the On-the-job Working and Learning program to support the new case advocate hire. We are revising the additional Collection topic material to ensure it is accurate and relevant to start delivering to new case advocates during the fourth quarter.

Also, we supported the Taxpayer First Act’s training initiatives by committing a team to serve as subject matter experts in the development of Internal Revenue Service University (IRSU) School of TAS. TAS also supported other IRSU development plans and committed a team to create an improved servicewide analyst curriculum. Lastly, we began development of 11 TAS courses reflected on the manager curriculum. These will be foundational courses for all new TAS managers. Additionally, we collaborated with an IRS function to obtain core leadership training for our not to exceed frontline managers who wouldn’t have received any servicewide training because they are not permanent managers.

4th Quarter: During the fourth quarter, the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) continued making progress on this objective. Our Centralized Case Intake (CCI) office collaborated with the Operations Support office on supporting TAS leadership in training employees and CCI has onboarded two detailees into hiring analyst roles in order to adequately support intake hiring. The team has two training coordinators and two detailed hiring analysts, with one detail ending soon. Also during the quarter, we piloted the additional Collection topic material to the first two case advocate cohorts and we will continue to train all new case advocates on these topics. Additionally, we created a plan to train all new case advocates who haven’t received training on these topics and training will continue through Fiscal Year 2024.

We will assess any exam and collections topics that are no longer in the new hire Case Advocate training for inclusion in an advanced Case Advocate training program and we will continue to assess TAS training programs to determine which courses should remain virtual and which should go back to a face to face environment.

Also during the fourth quarter, we developed a plan to move Basic Tax Law training to the beginning of the training cycle and will assess the feasibility of delivering it face to face during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2024. Lastly, we will continue to work on the identification and development of foundational training for TAS managers during the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2024.

This objective will continue in Fiscal Year 2024.

Status: Closed
Completion Date: 09/30/2023

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: ​The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) developed an aggressive hiring plan for the next four years.  Also, TAS received an increase of $15 million in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 IRS Enacted Budget to further support advocating on the behalf of taxpayers.  This additional funding allows TAS to continue advocate staffing in all 76 offices so we are ready for any downstream impact from IRS operations and enforcement activities.

2nd Quarter: ​TAS has implemented an aggressive hiring plan over the next four years. In the fiscal year 2023 Budget, we received an increase of $15 million in support of advocating on the behalf of taxpayers.  This funding allows TAS to maintain or increase advocate staffing in all 76 offices so we are ready for the downstream impacts on TAS operations from IRS’s increase in Level of Service and increased enforcement activities. Further, through March 11, 2023 TAS has hired 180 employees giving us 1,710 employees, a net increase of 86 employees compared to the same time last year.

3rd Quarter: Through June 17, 2023, TAS hired 327 employees this fiscal year. We have 1,745 employees on rolls, a net increase of 53 compared to the same time last year.

4th Quarter: Through September 23, 2023, TAS hired 531 employees. To date, TAS has 1,826 employees, a net increase of 103 compared to the same time last year. TAS has developed an aggressive hiring plan for Fiscal Year 2024 and depending on our budget we plan to add an additional 140 Case Advocates.

This objective is closed.

Status: Open
Expected Completion Date: 03/31/2024

Quarterly Update:
1st Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) created a second specialized technical training session for Business Master File (BMF) account issues, scheduled to be presented in January 2023.

2nd Quarter: TAS continued to review the feasibility of centralizing Business Master File (BMF) cases to provide better service to Taxpayers, or as an alternative, to enhance BMF skill building in our employees through additional training. TAS decided to move forward on improving BMF training and we have started recording some training sessions to prevent backlogs on delivering this training. The first class is set to be recorded on April 26, 2023.

3rd Quarter: Four sessions for International Topics were delivered to Centralized Case Iintake (CCI) intake advocates in May and June 2023.

4th Quarter: The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) continued working with Learning and Education (L&E) to revise Intake Accounts Part A and B during the fourth quarter. The class structure is being altered so it will now take place in three sections instead of two. The Centralized Case Intake (CCI) office is developing a new INIT training on International Issues, part 2: the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (FIRPTA). The Internal Technical Advisor Program (ITAP) provided Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) (ATAs) to assist with material review, preparation, and delivery. Work with SMEs begins next quarter. The INIT should be completely developed by end of November, for delivery by February 2024.

This objective will continue in Fiscal Year 2024.