Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board

IRS Oversight Board
Board overview
StatusSuspended
HeadquartersTreasury Building
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C., U.S
Websitewww.treasury.gov/irsob/Pages/default.aspx (archive url)

The IRS Oversight Board is a nine-member board established by the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 to oversee the Internal Revenue Service.[1] It usually meets four times a year.[2]

The board has made recommendations such as delaying the IRS target for taxpayers who file electronically, giving electronic filers more time,[3] and opposing the idea of contracting debt collection to private companies.[4] The board released an Annual Report to Congress as well as an annual Taxpayer Attitude Survey.[5] The survey covered topics such as how Americans felt about cheating on taxes.[6] Some have criticized the group as functioning more as an advisory board, rather than providing meaningful independent oversight.[7]

Operations of the board has been suspended since 2015, due to the lack of a quorum.[8] There are various legislative proposals to revamp the board (S. 3278), or to eliminate it completely (H.R. 5370). Senators Rob Portman and Bob Kerrey, who were involved in writing the 1998 bill, both supported revamping the board, but were strongly opposed by the Clinton administration.[9][10][11] The president of the National Taxpayers Union also supports restoring the board.[12]

  1. ^ 26 U.S.C. § 7802
  2. ^ Mara Lee (2015-12-15). "Ex-General Counsel For The Hartford Nominated To IRS Oversight Board". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  3. ^ "Oversight board encourages lawmakers to extend electronic filing deadline". VailDaily.com. Associated Press. 2006-01-30. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  4. ^ "U.S. lawmakers warned against using private debt collectors for IRS". Reuters. 2014-05-21. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  5. ^ "IRS Oversight Board Releases Latest Taxpayer Attitude Survey Results". Journal of Accountancy. 2011-01-11. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  6. ^ "One in eight say that it is OK to cheat on taxes". NBC News. 2010-02-23. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  7. ^ Lustig, Eric A. (2004). "IRS, Inc. - The IRS Oversight Board - Effective Reform or Just Politics? Some Early Thoughts from a Corporate Law Perspective". Duquesne University Law Review. 42 (4): 2004.
  8. ^ Heckman, Jory (2018-07-26). "Senators look to restore long-neglected IRS 'board of directors'". Federal News Network. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
  9. ^ Bade, Rachael (2013-05-17). "5 fixes for the IRS". POLITICO. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  10. ^ Bernie Becker (2018-05-08). "Portman against abolishing IRS Oversight Board". subscriber.politicopro.com. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  11. ^ Stein, Jeff (2021-07-08). "Conservative groups mount opposition to increase in IRS budget, threatening White House infrastructure plan". Washington Post. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  12. ^ "Opinion - I'm the President of the National Taxpayers Union. Be Careful With I.R.S. Reform". The New York Times. 2021-10-18. Retrieved 2022-04-19.