Episode 63

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Published on:

11th Apr 2023

Improving Taxpayer Experience and Reducing Federal Deficit: Insights from Wendy Walker, Solution Principal at Sovos

Meredith Smith and Judy Vorndran host Wendy Walker, a Solution Principal at Sovos, in the latest episode of the SALTovation podcast. They discuss the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided the IRS with $80 billion to upgrade the taxpayer experience. The recent Taxpayer Advocate Report to Congress, however, revealed that the IRS is short-staffed and underfunded, resulting in a surge of unanswered phone calls and delayed correspondence, which is causing a rising federal deficit. Wendy and Meredith suggest potential solutions for the IRS, such as acquiring funding to improve their service and transitioning from conventional communication methods to modern ones.

 

Topics discussed in this episode:

  • What is the Inflation Reduction Act?
  • IRS Funding and Taxpayer Experience Improvement
  • Potential Improvements for IRS: Modernization 

 

What You Will Learn:

  • 7:53 IRS Focus on Digital Asset Reporting, Modernization, and Tax Literacy
  • 15:00 Benefits of the Child Tax Credit and Taxpayer Education Efforts
  • 16:04 IRS Funding for Pre-Filing Services, Education, and Taxpayer Advocacy

Quotables:

  • “In 2020, the Taxpayer Advocate Report to Congress indicated that the third most serious problem that the IRS faced is that they are significantly underfunded to service taxpayers and collect tax. The report cited that they're unable to answer millions of taxpayer phone calls, they're unable to process timely correspondence, and that our federal deficit continues to grow as a result of that underfunding.” -Wendy Walker [00:55]
  • “How many people want to do a job that feels like everybody's mad at you? Right. How do you encourage a culture that takes care of these people who are trying to care for the people? So we have to make it like, less adversarial, but then also generate those people to come in.” -Judy Vorndran [07:09]


  • “99% of the revenues that our federal government operates on get collected by the IRS. So you would think that we would be more concerned with ensuring they had the funds and the people right to make sure those systems can do that efficiently.” -Wendy Walker [07:53]


  • “The IRS doesn't have funding to do any of that education outreach on their normal appropriations that they're given from Congress. So funding is important for the IRS to be able to bring things out of paper publications that are really hard to find and are buried and get them out onto the Internet leverage searches so that taxpayers can really take advantage of some education before filing.“ -Wendy Walker [16:47]


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Production Support

This episode was produced with support from Truth Work Media. www.truthworkmedia.com

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About the Podcast

SALTovation: Making Sense of State and Local Tax
Welcome to SALTovation. The SALTovation show is a podcast series featuring the leading voices in state and local tax (SALT). Here we talk about issues, strategies, and planning tools to help you make sense of SALT. Because, in SALT, there is no “one and done.” SALT is a puzzle of ever-changing pieces. Solving that puzzle is our business at SALTovation. Tens of thousands of listeners know they won't get tax talk as usual with the SALTovation team. Our team is known for straight-talk with a flair for fun, providing clarity and opinions that move businesses forward with confidence.

Attorney, CPA, speaker, and writer Judy Vorndran leads the SALTovation team as they go inside business to help deal with the daily operations and long-term strategies of making SALT less “taxing.” Judy has spent more than 25 years advocating for businesses with innovative strategies, renowned knowledge and experience. She has helped guide thousands of taxpayers across the nation and globally through the morass of SALT, freeing them to concentrate on growth. Joining Judy are the wickedly smart members of the SALTovation team, who have seen, worked with and tamed some of the most prickly issues in SALT. They enjoy sharing their stories and knowledge with listeners.

Solving the SALT puzzle doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it takes a community. So, we invite leaders in business and state and local tax to share their stories, challenges and successes on this show. Drop us a line at SALTovation.com if you'd like to join the conversation and tune into our regular series at TaxOps.com.