TAP 04-054

Expanding Third Party Authorization Term

Statement of Issue:

Taxpayers are allowed to authorize a third party to discuss questions about various tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by checking a box adjacent to the signature section on the returns. The authorization is limited to one year from the due date, without extension, of the return.

Proposal:

The IRS should expand the term of the authorization to three (3) years. Many times the IRS is not able to correspond with taxpayers about math errors, offsets, and return preparation within one year of the due date. Part of the delay is caused by taxpayers filing returns past the original due date. Extending the authorization to three (3) years would not jeopardize or change any IRS enforcement actions.