Baucus gets update from IRS on Tax Day

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Friday announced a hearing for April 15 that will look at issues confronting the Internal Revenue Service. 

Topics raised at the hearing are expected to include agency oversight of questionable actions by tax preparers and how well the agency is faring on the customer service front.  An update on the tax gap, the difference between the revenue the agency collects versus what it is owed, could also come up. Baucus is a huge proponent for closing the gap.  

Steven Miller, IRS Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement, and Nina Olson, the agency's National Taxpayer Advocate, are expected to testify at the hearing. Olson testified at a similar hearing in the House where inadequate toll-free telephone service was her number one problem confronting the agency. 

IRS liens unnecessarily harming taxpayers was second on her list. Finance staffers recently told The Hill that IRS agents have ignored requests from Congress to go easy on lien enforcement. 

Olson's report states that some IRS liens have damaged taxpayers' credit scores, which devastated some small business owners who couldn't secure the capital needed to fund operations.