All IRS taxpayer assistance centers (TACs) are slated to reopen by the end of July, but with oversight and limited access to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, according to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig.
The reopened TACs will be by appointment only to start, the commissioner said July 21 in keynote remarks at an online IRS tax forum, during which he updated tax professionals on a wide range of tax administration concerns.
Rettig said the IRS has put safety measures in place at TACs, including social distancing, and that it will continue to monitor the number of coronavirus cases in the cities where the centers are located and “adjust our facilities accordingly.”
“If the particular area where we have a facility located hits a spike, anticipate that we’re going to” further limit TAC access or close the office, Rettig said.
The IRS closed all 511 of its facilities in late March to limit potential coronavirus exposure of taxpayers, employees, and others, and it has slowly been reopening for the last couple months.
Rettig said that as the agency reopens, he sees a “silver lining” in the crisis to maximize IRS virtual operations. That includes continuing the teleworking opportunities that the IRS created for up to 56,140 employees as long as possible.
“You’re going to see certain parts of the [IRS] operation shifting considerably as we move forward,” Rettig added.
Still in a Pandemic
The IRS’s People First Initiative, which postponed compliance actions and eased payment guidelines, expired July 15. But Rettig said the agency is keenly aware that the country is “still in a pandemic, and that people are still burdened with a lot of different things, and the IRS does not want to be adding to that burden.”
To that end, face-to-face service won’t be required, and examinations, collections, and other enforcement activities will continue virtually, Rettig said.
Still, Rettig said the agency is committed to “strong, visible, robust tax enforcement,” and he reiterated that it is “extremely active in certain types of abusive types of transactions,” including tax shelters, syndicated conservation easements, and some microcaptive insurance arrangements.
Rettig noted the inclusion on the 2019 Form 1040 of a question about virtual currency transactions, adding, “Pay attention — you’ll see that on the 2020 [form], too . . . in a different location.”
The commissioner also noted that with Congress debating another cash stimulus to fight the coronavirus recession, “the IRS may be given the opportunity to [distribute payments] all over again, and we will.”
The agency distributed some $270 billion in about 160 million economic impact payments, in addition to hundreds of billions of dollars in refunds, and didn’t suffer a single technology-related error, Rettig said, adding, “I think that’s spectacular.”