Adding Pressure to the IRS Could Help Bring Back Important e-Services set to be eliminated on August 11 of this year!
On July 12th Sandy Zinman, Chair of NCCPAP’S Tax Policy Committee, attended an IRS National Public Liaison conference call. Participating on the call were the usual invitation-only representatives from the tax practitioner community and several IRS tax representatives. During the call, IRS representatives explained that they are simply not able to transfer all the functionalities of their old technology platform to the new platform due to cost constraints, which is the IRS’ reason behind why they are eliminating the Disclosure Authorization and Electronic Account Resolution e-Services.
On the call, IRS representatives shared that it would cost in excess of one million dollars to transfer these functionalities to the new platform. Despite hearing from over 4,000 tax practitioners--including many NCCPAP members--and various concerned organizations via letters and petitions, the IRS representatives said their decision was final.
NCCPAP’S Tax Policy Committee is urging NCCPAP local chapters to collectively sign letters and send them to their local elected officials in an effort to reverse this decision that will negatively impact CPAs when the current automated process reverts to an antiquated fax/customer service representative one. Essentially the IRS is transferring the burden of time and money to CPA practitioners and their small business clients. The IRS has reversed decisions before but only after receiving significant pressure.
We strongly urge each chapter to take the time now and send these letters so we do not have to lose valuable time--especially during tax season--because of this change. We believe if the IRS cannot transfer the functionality, certainly with advances in technology, they can create a similar option on the new platform.
Don’t have time to write an original letter? See the link below, which includes both sample letters and contact information for your Representative in Congress and your Senators. We recommend having a petition signed by your local NCCPAP members at your chapter’s next meeting so the signed petitions can accompany the letters when they are mailed to your Senators and Representatives. Phone calls to your Congressional leaders are also encouraged. As it stands now, the IRS will be pulling these valuable e-Services from their website on August 11th.
You may use Beyond 415’s sample letter and list of contact information to contact your Senators and Representatives regarding this issue. Thank you for your support. We will keep you posted.