NATP sends letter to IRS advocating for relief during 2022 tax season
The National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP) sent a letter, along with other professional organizations, including AICPA, NAEA, NSTP and NSA, urging the IRS to take immediate action to reduce unnecessary burdens during the 2022 tax season.
Requested actions include:
- Discontinuing automated compliance actions until the IRS is prepared to devote the necessary resources for a proper and timely resolution of the matter
- Aligning requests for account holds with the time it takes the IRS to process any penalty abatement requests
- Offering reasonable cause penalty waivers, similar to the procedures for first-time abate (FTA) administrative waiver, without affecting the taxpayer’s eligibility for FTA in future tax years
- Providing taxpayers with targeted relief from both the underpayment of estimated tax penalty and the late payment penalty for tax years 2020 and 2021
The IRS has an unprecedented number of unprocessed returns in comparison to years before the pandemic, which is causing a ripple of effects to taxpayers and tax preparers including numerous mistargeted notices, liens and levies.
Additionally, the IRS is only answering 9 percent of calls, and only 3 percent of calls about individual income tax returns, which prevents taxpayers from resolving these straightforward issues.
“One of NATP’s top priorities is to advocate for our members, which means holding the IRS accountable when there are unnecessary burdens placed on tax preparers and other industry professionals,” said NATP Executive Director Scott Artman, CPA, CGMA. “We appreciate the IRS recognizes the situation is frustrating, but it has not yet taken what we feel are common sense actions to mitigate the impact of the current backlog, while expecting tax preparers and taxpayers to meet the resulting deadlines.”
NATP and other industry associations cited in the letter are eagerly waiting to meet with IRS staff to elaborate on recommendations and respond directly to any questions.
The National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP) is the largest nonprofit organization that works exclusively for tax professionals. We serve members through education, advocacy and community, providing the tools they need to navigate the tax code and the insights the media can trust.
Looking for a tax expert? Tom O’Saben, EA, director of tax content and government relations at NATP, is available for phone or video interviews to discuss federal tax topics, including tax law change and its implications, taxpayer issues, tax preparer regulation and more. To schedule an interview with O’Saben, contact [email protected] or [email protected].