The broad issue is why taxpayers
do not get their mail from the IRS and how the IRS can
foster more taxpayers getting their correspondence.
The responsibility for proper addresses and reporting
address changes to the IRS lies with the taxpayer.
Proposal:
The Area 5 Committee recommended
the IRS do the following:
Emphasize the importance of filing a Form 8822,
Change of Address, more prominently.
In future revisions of the 1040 Instructions and Publication
17, information related to Form 8822 could be emphasized.
Its current placement on page 60 of the 1040 Instructions
is buried. It could also be moved to the Important
Reminders on page 2 in Publication 17.
Clarify in taxpayer materials what is required
for a “match.” Taxpayers need to know
that name matches are performed when names are exactly
identical--like an e-mail address or they will potentially
be rejected. “Robert Smith” who sometimes
goes by “Bob” or “Robbie”
or “Robert Smith, Sr.” will not be a match.
Publicize the address change policy. The National
Taxpayer Advocate’s 2003 Annual Report recommends
advertising through public service announcements the
importance to the taxpayer of notifying the IRS of
an address change using Form 8822 and inserting a
direct link to the form on the home page of the IRS
website.
Response Notes:
In the 2004 Instructions for Form 1040,
the IRS has moved the change of address information pertaining
to Form 8822 from the General Information in the back
of the instructions to page 16 (the first page of the
line instructions).and added a reminder on change of address
to the Important Reminders section on page 2 of the 2004
Publication 17. However, the IRS prefers not to publicize
the address change policy whereby the IRS matches names
against the United States Postal Service's national address
database. The IRS does not want taxpayers to rely on this
match as a method of updating their address with the IRS.
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