The Taxpayers FIRST coalition, organized by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation and featuring some of the leading tax and IRS experts in the country, has been lauded as an important project that will bring valuable advice and policy recommendations to the Internal Revenue Service as it plans how to utilize the biggest budget boost in the agency’s history.
The members working on the Taxpayers FIRST coalition have been called an “all-star cast” of tax experts by Tax Notes, and noted by Politico that it will “keep an eye on the IRS.”
"It's critical that policymakers work in a bipartisan fashion in the years ahead to improve tax administration at the IRS and to modernize the services taxpayers rely on,” says Jason Fichtner, vice president and chief economist at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a Taxpayers FIRST Advisory Board member. “The Taxpayers FIRST Project is assembling a group of experts on all these matters and more to advise the IRS on how they can most effectively use newly available funding, and I'm proud to be a part of it."
The Taxpayers FIRST Advisory Board will work in conjunction with NTUF to develop policy recommendations and lay out a vision for improved services and technology for taxpayers across the country. From measuring and assessing the tax gap to improving and modernizing customer service to enhancing taxpayer rights and privacy, the Taxpayers FIRST coalition will provide the necessary advice and oversight to the IRS as its budget boost is implemented.
"Understanding our tax obligations is a form of wealth insurance,” says Barbara Robles, former economist with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and a Taxpayers FIRST Advisory Board member. “Financial education and outreach prioritizing tax knowledge and how taxes provide our country's foundational 'goods and services' is a much needed public and civic message."
Peter Mills of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Rebecca Thompson of Prosperity Now, and Jason DeCuir of Advantous have all been announced as members of the Advisory Board, and the coalition will shortly begin its work and outreach efforts in engaging on the IRS’s transformatory budget boost.
For more information on the Taxpayers FIRST project, visit https://taxpayers-first.org or contact NTUF Vice President of Communications Kevin Glass at 703-299-8670 or at kglass@ntu.org.
