The Notice Committee was
asked to review the April 30, 2004 Notice Standardization
Guide, which is the style guide for re-writing notices.
The document addresses verbal and written information
changes aiming for easier and more effective communication
between the IRS, taxpayers, and others involved in the
tax system.
Proposal:
Specific recommendations
or questions regarding the report included the logistics
for installing 11 point font for all notices and a suggestion
to include answering the question, "What are the
consequences if I don't pay?" The proposal also
asked for clarification of the legal language, the documents
assessment tool and recommended placing the acronym
directory and glossary in the forward rather than the
last chapter.
Response Notes:
Included the narrative chart TAP developed
in the" Using the Document Assessment Tool"
section of the Notice Standardization Guide. Agreed with
TAP's page number suggestion to include the section number
with the page number, however, it was too late to incorporate
but will set up links on the website version to alleviate
the problem. Regarding the standardization of fonts used
by IRS, because this involves so many different internal
systems, IRS needs to implement slowly. Disagreed with
adding special section on "What are the consequences
if I don't pay?" because it is their belief all elements
covered in "Why should I pay?" IRS will ask
for additional comments on A Standard Format or Layout
in the future. Suggested changes could not be made to
the Document Assessment Tool since it is a copyrighted
document.
Graphic Version