The Annual Report to Congress creates a dialogue at the highest level of government to address taxpayers’ problems, protect taxpayers’ rights, and ease taxpayers’ burden.The report identifies at least 20 of the most serious problems facing taxpayers and offers recommendations to fix them. Some of the issues, like tax reform and IRS’s need to expand its various taxpayer services, affect virtually every American taxpayer. Others, like the Alternative Minimum Tax, refund delays, and tax-related identity theft, impact large groups of taxpayers.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), led by the National Taxpayer Advocate, is your voice at the IRS. Some of the problems discussed in this report were first identified when taxpayers came to TAS for help in resolving problems with the IRS.

TAS is an independent organization within the IRS. The National Taxpayer Advocate delivers this report directly to the tax-writing committees in Congress (the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance), with no prior review by the IRS Commissioner, the Secretary of the Treasury, or the Office of Management and Budget.