Taxpayer Burden Reduction

Today I was pondering the burdens placed on taxpayers and wondering, “what if there was a convenient way for taxpayers to voice their concerns and offer their opinions to the IRS about the burdens of filing & paying taxes?” Then I came across Form 13285A and the Office of Taxpayer Burden Reduction. That’s right, tax relief from those who are handing out the tax bills?

For all I know this  “office” is down in the basement of an IRS office building in Lanham, MD manned by a single IRS employee who can be seen clutching his favorite red stapler from time to time. But the form looks legit. You just need to provide (1) your contact information, (2) a description of the problem, (3) a description of who the problem affects, and (4) your proposed solution to the problem.

You may submit the form anonymously, but the instructions to the form state that the IRS may need to get in contact with you to obtain more details regarding the problem and/or solution and that “[n]ot providing any or all of the contact information may delay or impede the IRS review process if there is inadequate information to analyze the issue.”

The IRS will do a cost-benefit analysis in determining which ideas it will implement. But if your suggestion is that the tax laws should be changed, don’t bother with this form; the IRS can’t do anything about that. You would need to reach out to the legislators if your gripe is with the underlying tax laws.