IRS Announces Long-Term Strategic Transformation Plan
On April 6, 2023, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced a 10-year strategic operating plan that shows how the IRS will deploy the tremendous resources appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act to ensure the IRS is a customer service orientated agency. The IRS has faced intense scrutiny for its shrinking workforce, enforcement capabilities, and its ability to resolve audit issues in a timely fashion. Even with the challenges, in 2021, the IRS processed 269 million returns, collected $4.1 trillion in tax revenue, and disbursed 492 million economic relief payments during the Covid-19 pandemic. But as outlined in their strategic operation plan, there is more to do.
The plan lays out an ambitious plan to overhaul the agency and ensure that it is meeting the needs of the over 200 million Americans the IRS interacts with annually.
For small businesses, interfacing with the IRS is a necessity that only grows more complicated as your business grows, you hire employees or contractors, and/or you provide benefits. To that end, the strategic operation plan, specifically lays out the modernization efforts that will specifically benefit small business owners. They include:
- Expanded online service tools
- New ability to respond to notices and file online
- Simplified, mobile-friendly forms
- Expanded digitization to eliminate paper-based processes and expand service options
- Help small businesses understand and claim credits and deductions.
You can learn more about these enhanced benefits for small businesses here.
The National Association of the Self-Employed will continue to provide feedback to the IRS to ensure accountability as it relates to the ambitious (and needed) reforms they have laid out.