Weekend IRS reading

Everybody has some things they'd like to say to the IRS, but a few groups get the chance to do so officially.

There's the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council (IRSAC), the Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee (IRPAC) and the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP).

All three groups are composed of volunteers and have specific goals.

IRSAC provides a forum for IRS officials and the public to discuss tax administration issues.

IRPAC's primary purpose is to provide a public forum for discussion among the IRS and the information reporting community to discuss, you guessed it, information reporting issues. This covers, for example, the tax-related documents that employers, casinos and other gambling establishments and investment firms must file.

And TAP, as regular readers know, is the volunteer panel that is charged with helping the IRS respond more effectively to taxpayer concerns about the filing process and our tax collection system. I was honored to be selected to the Panel in 2006; next year, I'll complete my three-year term as a TAP member.

Reporting time: Also as part of their duties, each advisory group is required to issue an annual report. IRSAC just released its document last week, so it seems like the perfect time to remind everyone of the availability of all the groups' reports.

I know many of you are always looking for some fun weekend reading, so here are the latest documents detailing the three panel's efforts, observations and recommendations to the IRS:
IRPAC, IRSAC and TAP. Were there enough consecutive acronyms for you there in that last sentence?

Granted, none of these publications will ever make it onto a best seller list, but some folks might find a few things of interest. Or at least get some use from them on sleepless nights. And I get to say that, since I help put out the TAP report!