IRS Releases Strategic Operating Plan Update Outlining Future Priorities

The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released an update to its plan to transform agency work and improve taxpayer experience. The update to the Strategic Operating Plan provides “an outline of the major projects and outcomes the IRS expects to deliver over the next 12 to 18 months, including enforcement activities, efforts to modernize foundational technology and improve IRS employee tools to help taxpayers.” The plan focuses on five key objectives, one of which (Objective 2) is to “quickly resolve taxpayer issues when they arise.”

The planned changes that the IRS expects to lead to the organization’s success in meeting Objective 2, include enhancing live assistance, expanding online services, simplifying notices, disrupting tax scams and schemes, improving IRS employee tools, and ensuring fairness in enforcement. The IRS expects to accelerate these changes through fiscal year 2025 and reports that, during this past tax season (compared with last), it answered over a million more calls (with reduced wait times) and increased in- person service at its Taxpayer Assistance Centers by 37%.

In addition to the above, the report notes that the IRS, with its continued focus on enforcement, anticipates increasing audits on the wealthiest taxpayers, large corporations and large, complex partnerships. Audit rates on wealthy individual taxpayers (those with total positive income over $10 million) will increase from an 11% coverage rate in 2019 to 16.5% in tax year 2026. The IRS continues to emphasize that it will not increase audit rates for small businesses and taxpayers making under $400,000.

For more information see the IRS release here:

IRS releases Strategic Operating Plan update outlining future priorities; transformation momentum accelerating following long list of successes for taxpayers | Internal Revenue Service