Should IRS Employees Know the Taxpayer Bill of Rights? (H.R. 1058)

What is H.R. 1058?

(Updated May 6, 2020)

This bill would require the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ensure that IRS employees are familiar with, and act in ways that uphold the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. The bill does not, however, specify how the IRS should make their employees familiar with the rights. 

The Taxpayer Bill of Rights, as articulated by the IRS’s Taxpayer Advocate, include the rights:

• To be informed;

• To quality service;

• To challenge the IRS’s position and be heard;

• To pay no more than the correct amount of taxes;

• To appeal IRS decisions in an independent forum;

• To a speedy audit, and the right to know when an audit is finished (i.e. finality); 

• To privacy and confidentiality;

• To retain representation;

• To a fair and just tax system.

Argument in favor

IRS employees need to be respectful of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and apply them as a guideline for dealing with their customers — taxpayers. The IRS has lost the public’s trust, and this would help re-establishing that trust.

Argument opposed

These rights have always been there for taxpayers, even if IRS employees don't know about them. People should take it upon themselves to learn their rights, and IRS employees probably already know them, even if it's not in the "bill of rights" form.

Impact

Taxpayers, IRS employees, and the IRS Commissioner.

Cost of H.R. 1058

A CBO cost estimate found that implementing this bill would have no significant impact on the federal budget.

Additional Info

In-Depth:

In June 2014 the IRS adopted the Taxpayer Bill of Rights — a re-organized collection of the existing rights that taxpayers have in the tax code. The user-friendly grouping of the rights into 10 broad categories created to make them more accessible to taxpayers who might not otherwise know they exist.

Plans were also set to mail these guidelines to taxpayers who receive follow-up correspondence from the IRS. The rights are published on the IRS website. The Commissioner of the IRS, John Koskinen, noted:

“While these rights have always been there for taxpayers, we think the time is right to highlight and showcase these rights for people to plainly see.”

A 2012 internal IRS survey found that only 46 percent of taxpayers believe that they have ANY rights to leverage when dealing with the IRS, while only 11 percent were aware of what a taxpayer’s rights are.

Of Note:

In November 2014 the IRS had a public approval rating of 41 percent and narrowly lost the 'least approved-of federal agency' title to the Federal Reserve Board. That's up from a 27 percent approval rating in May 2013, when the IRS was in the midst of its political targeting controversy.

Media:

Sponsoring Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) Press Release

CBO Cost Estimate

IRS Taxpayer Advocate (Context)

Forbes (Context)

New York Times (Context)