The IRS published its 5-Year Strategic Plan for years 2018 to 2022. Below are some of its strategic goals.
- Honoring the Taxpayer Bill of Rights;
- Encouraging more online interaction to increase efficiency;
- Modernizing infrastructure;
- Clarifying, through its notice 2018-54, that federal law controls the characterization of income for federal tax-deduction purposes, and that regulations will recognize substance over form. This notice counteracts states like New York, New Jersey, and California, which have implemented workarounds to avoid the $10,000 limit on state and local tax deductions;
- Placing importance on having productive and helpful communications with Taxpayers;
- Using better information technology to manage data; and
- Balancing taxpayer behavior with appropriate actions taken by the IRS.
For an even better summary of the plan, click on the below link, which takes you to the gold standard of procedural tax law: Procedurally Taxing.
IRS Publishes 5-Year Strategic Plan
But see our follow-up blog where we summarize a recent, detailed report by the National Taxpayer Advocate. That report exposes several current, systemic flaws in IRS practice.