 |
|||
|
|||
News EssentialsThe Newsroom TopicsIRS Resources |
Issue Number:? ??IR-2024-19Inside This IssueIRS launches Simple Notice Initiative redesign effort Shorter, clearer letters to reduce taxpayer confusion; about 170 million notices sent to individual taxpayers annually WASHINGTON ? The Internal Revenue Service today announced work is underway on the Simple Notice Initiative, a sweeping effort to simplify and clarify about 170 million letters sent annually to taxpayers. Part of the larger transformation work taking place at the IRS with Inflation Reduction Act funding, the Simple Notice Initiative will build off redesigned notice efforts in place for the 2024 tax season and expand on a recent successful pilot involving identity theft letters. The ?Simple Notice Initiative? will review and redesign hundreds of notices with an immediate focus on the most common notices that individual taxpayers receive. The redesign work will accelerate during the 2025 and 2026 filing seasons, improving common IRS letters going out to individual taxpayers and then expanding into notices going to businesses. The IRS sends about 170 million notices to individual taxpayers every year, covering a range of issues from claiming the credits and deductions for which they are eligible for as well as meet their tax obligations. These notices are often long and difficult for taxpayers to understand. And they do not always clearly and concisely communicate the next steps a taxpayer must take. ?Simplifying and clarifying these letters will make it easier for taxpayers to understand the tax issues involved,? said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. ?This will help reduce questions and save headaches for taxpayers, the tax professional community as well as the IRS. Improving these letters is also critical to our internal operations at the IRS, and an important part of our transformation efforts. Clearer letters can create a ripple effect, reducing taxpayer phone calls and visits and freeing up IRS staff to help others.? This initiative builds on the IRS Paperless Processing initiative announced in August 2023 to advance the goal of providing world-class customer service to taxpayers. With these initiatives, taxpayers have the option to go paperless and conveniently submit necessary responses online, and taxpayers will receive clearer and more concise notices from the IRS, so they better understand the actions they need to take. Filing Season 2024: IRS reviewed, redesigned 31 notices
Filing Season 2025: IRS will review, redesign most common notices sent to individual taxpayers
Filing Season 2026 and beyond: IRS will review, redesign notices sent to businesses taxpayers as well as less common notices sent to individual taxpayers
Recent notice pilot shows how a redesigned notice can improve taxpayer experience while reducing call volume The IRS is committed to delivering a better taxpayer experience through notices, over the phone, online and in-person. While taxpayers will always have the option to call, the IRS also wants to make it easier for taxpayers to resolve issues without having to pick up the phone. Plain language notices can help the IRS achieve this goal. For example, the IRS recently conducted a pilot that sent redesigned versions of Notice 5071C to a subset of taxpayers. The Notice 5071C asks taxpayers to verify their identity and tax return online or over the phone to prevent the processing of fraudulent tax returns. As part of the redesign, the IRS shortened the 5071C notice from seven pages to two pages. The IRS also improved readability of the notice by updating the font and adding visual enhancements such as headers, icons and step-by-step instructions. The IRS also clarified instructions and added a QR code that directs taxpayers to the IRS webpage where they can respond to the notice online instead of responding over the phone. See below for an overview of improvements that were made. The IRS sent the redesigned Notice 5071C to 60,000 taxpayers. Compared to taxpayers who received the original notice, there was a 16% reduction in taxpayers who called the IRS as their first action, and a 6% increase in taxpayers who used the online option. The IRS will apply lessons learned from this pilot, among others, to the new initiative. These changes to this notice will be put in place during coming months. Notice 5071C: Before and after redesign shows changes
Thank you for subscribing to the IRS Newswire, an IRS e-mail service. If you know someone who might want to subscribe to this mailing list, please forward this message to them so they can subscribe. This message was distributed automatically from the mailing list IRS Newswire. Please Do Not Reply To This Message. |
||
?
| This email was sent to [email protected] by: Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ? Internal Revenue Service ? 1111 Constitution Ave. N.W. ? Washington DC 20535 |  |
