I deal with the IRS every day, please don’t make it harder

By: Nancy Hall

Every year my team and I spend the springtime months helping families and small businesses here in Tucson face the daunting task of filing their taxes. It’s an annual ritual that we all must partake in, and one in which great care is taken to make sure that we are following the rules and putting ourselves in the best financial position we can be. It’s intimidating for most, and complicated to say the least.

But now new proposals before Congress are trying to dramatically upend the filing process so that the IRS is not only the tax collector but would also become the tax filing preparer. As good intentioned as this may be, the reality of this change would be a calamity for taxpayers as they try to navigate and engage with an already overwhelmed government agency. As a certified public accountant, I deal with IRS all the time and I know that it is a beast of a bureaucracy to engage with.

I know how to navigate it when I have an issue and I am even routinely frustrated with the customer service I receive when attempting to resolve even the simplest of problems. But I know that the families and businesses that I serve do not have this same expertise, much less the extra time that would be required to call and deal with the IRS to resolve the most mundane of issues.

However, beyond just a poor customer service experience, there are a variety of other concerns that any American taxpayer should be greatly worried about. Chiefly, this change would be setting up a new system that creates a blatant conflict of interest that would ultimately be harmful to the very same people that this proposal is purporting to help.

I am honored to work for the small businesses and families that have chosen me to be the steward of their tax filings each year. In my role as an accountant, I advocate for them before the IRS to ensure that they can maximize their returns and make sure that they get what they are owed. Additionally, I verify that my clients are not wrongly being forced to overpay beyond what they owe. Make no mistake, when the IRS acts as both the tax collector and the tax filer, the incentive to look out for these concerns goes out the window and the families and small businesses that I serve get the short end of a stick.

These issues that I’ve laid out are clear problems that the IRS needs to address. I know that there are countless frustrations that many Arizonans share with the way we file our taxes. It’s something I hear every year and I know that there are good intentions with the proposals laid out. But the way that this proposal intends to overturn this entire system, while good intentioned it may be, will only be harmful to taxpayers and make all our lives more difficult.

Nancy Hall is a certified public accountant and the President of a CPA firm in Southern Arizona