Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are announcing key milestones reached as part of its ongoing transformation efforts made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), including continued progress to save Americans time and money by improving online and in person service and increasing tax fairness.
The updates highlighted today include the release of six new features for Individual Online Account, a new Spanish version of Business Tax Account, and additional business forms that can be filed electronically. In addition, the IRS announced reaching the milestone of 1 million submissions through the Document Upload Tool, the availability of more pop-up Taxpayer Assistance Centers to help taxpayers in underserved parts of the country, and the collection of more than $1 billion in past-due taxes from high-wealth taxpayers.
NEW FEATURES, KEY MILESTONES REACED ON ONLINE DIGITAL TOOLS
Taxpayers deserve the same functionality in their online accounts that they experience with their bank or other financial institutions. As detailed in the Strategic Operating Plan, the IRS is transforming its operations so all taxpayers can interact with the agency digitally if they prefer. As part of this vision, taxpayers will be able to securely file all documents and respond to all notices online and securely access and download their data and account history . The IRS has hit or has in progress several milestones toward these goals:
- Respond to notices online hits 1 million uploads:
- The IRS continues to expand the functionality of its online platforms, including several new features in Individual Online Account that give taxpayers the ability to:
- Retrieve all their tax related information from one source, including Wage & Income, Account, Record of Account, and Return transcripts;
- Request an update to their Identity Protection (IP) PIN using their smartphones or tablets;
- View information about the status of their audit around the clock, instead of having to call the IRS to obtain audit information;
- Use a Lien Payoff Calculator to access lien information, calculate their lien payoff amount, and generate a letter for download/print;
- Complete the Pending Installment Agreement process within Online Account without having to be re-routed to a separate application and
- View a comprehensive overview of their account information, including the status of their tax refund as it’s being processed.
- With the latest expansion, Business Tax Account is now available in Spanish. In addition, business taxpayers can now see their balance due and make payments in one place. Previously, the balance due and payment page had to be viewed separately, unnecessarily complicating the payment process. Sole proprietors can also now download business entity transcripts from their Business Tax Account. This transcript shows entity information like business name, address, location address and more for the Employer Identification Number on file.
- File new returns electronically: Additional business Forms 940, 941, 943 and 945, including the Spanish version of Forms 941 and 943, can now be filed electronically. Through this improved process, IRS employees can now access taxpayer return information electronically when taxpayers request assistance, allowing them to provide more complete and accurate answers to taxpayer questions. In addition, the agency can now accept related electronic payments, minimizing errors typically associated with processing paper returns. Taxpayers can still choose to submit a paper version.
- Use mobile-friendly forms: IRS now has a total of 30 forms available for mobile use, allowing taxpayers to fill out common non-tax forms on cell phones and tablet devices and digitally submit them. Taxpayers have submitted more than 72,000 mobile-friendly forms since the September 2023 launch. Providing taxpayers with common forms in this new format offers them a safe and fast way to electronically engage with the IRS. This can also help reduce mail and paper when they send forms to the IRS. Forms adapt to any screen size and ensure information is entered into all required data fields to reduce errors that delay processing. In addition, taxpayers can access five of these forms that require signatures in their Online Account, including:
- Form 13533 – VITA/TCE Partner Sponsor Agreement
- Form 13533-A – FSA Remote Sponsor Agreement
- Form 14039-B – Business Identity Theft Affidavit
- Form 12508 – Questionnaire for Non-Requesting Spouse
- Form 14157-A – Tax Return Preparer Fraud or Misconduct Affidavit
- Simple Notice Initiative Progresses: The IRS has redesigned 100 of the most common notices that individual taxpayers receive, part of the ongoing work to prepare for the 2025 filing season as part of the Simple Notice Initiative. These notices make up about 90% of total notice volume sent to individual taxpayers, representing about 150 million notices sent to individual taxpayers in 2022.
MORE IN-PERSON HELP OFFERED; SPECIAL PROGRAMS OFFERED IN UNDERSERVED AREAS
The IRS continues to focus on helping taxpayers get it right the first time, helping them to interact with the agency in the ways that work best for them on the phone, in-person and online. The IRS is expanding in-person service, particularly those in underserved and rural communities.
During the filing season, IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers had a 37% increase in face-to-face contacts, with the IRS working with nearly 1.3 million for this calendar year through July 13. The IRS also received 2.7 million volunteer prepared returns to date compared to 2.5 million last year, an increase of 9.1%.
This summer, the IRS is continuing its special series of pop-up Taxpayer Assistance Centers to give taxpayers living in areas far from the agency’s in-person offices an opportunity to meet face-to-face with IRS customer service representatives. These visits, which began last year with IRA funding, provide help for taxpayers who do not live within several hours of an IRS office. This summer’s Community Assistance Visits include:
- May 20-24, Roma, Texas
- June 10-14, Humboldt, Iowa
- June 24-28, Hazelhurst, Georgia
- July 8-12, Orocovis, Puerto Rico
- July 22-26, Gallup, New Mexico
- 5-9, Thomasville, Alabama
- 19-23, Great Bend, Kansas
- 9-13, West Plains, Missouri
- 23-27, Clarkston, Washington
- 7-11, Fairbanks, Alaska
- 21-25, Potsdam, New York