(Bloomberg) — Congress has handed the IRS more work and less funding, leading to a decline in taxpayer service, the tax agency's independent in-house critic said in a new report.

The agency's inability to provide clear, timely assistance to the public is the most serious issue facing the nation's taxpayers, according to the annual report released today by Nina Olson, the national taxpayer advocate.

"Many taxpayers will be frustrated, some will make potentially costly mistakes, others will incur higher compliance costs when forced to seek information and assistance from tax professionals that the IRS previously provided for free," Olson wrote in the report. "And still others will simply give up and not file returns at all."

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.