Ask the IRS

Submission Guidelines

Your submission should address a systemic or burden reduction issue. Please review the following definitions to understand what fits into those categories.

Systemic - a systemic issue impacts segments of the taxpayer population, locally, regionally, or nationally. It involves systems, processes, policies, procedures, or legislation; and requires study, analysis, recommendation(s), and may require administrative or legislative action to come to a positive resolution. Systemic issues are not the same as individual taxpayer cases.

Read about the Taxpayer Advocate Systemic Advocacy Program on the IRS Web site for more information about what qualifies as a systemic issue.

Measuring Burden Reduction - Taxpayer burden is defined as the time or money expended by taxpayers to fulfill their tax responsibilities. It is currently only measured as it relates to the amount of time that is expended to complete the required tax forms and to maintain the necessary records/information. The cost of having an employee or third party complete these tasks is also a measure of taxpayer burden. This measure is especially significant for small business and self-employed taxpayers since an estimated 80% of them use the services of a practitioner. Other secondary measures that may be used to gauge the impact of burden reduction include IRS cost savings, including staff costs, and reflects the savings realized by the elimination of "downstream" work, such as data entry, adjustments, notices/correspondence and compliance activities.

Burden Reduction Initiatives - Taxpayer Burden Reduction Initiatives should address administrative, regulatory, process or systemic issues that impact a large number of taxpayers and significantly reduce burden. All initiatives must be coordinated with all internal and external stakeholders to ensure that other program areas and interests are not negatively impacted. The selection and/or prioritization of initiatives will be based on the cost benefit analysis approach referenced in Measuring Burden Reduction.

Types of burden reduction initiatives include:

• Simplifying forms, publications and communications
  
• Streamlining internal policies, processes and procedures
  
• Promoting less burdensome rulings, regulations and law

Read more about burden reduction initiatives on the IRS Web site.