Taxpayer solve their problems with the i. R. S. And make legislative and administrative recommendations to mitigate those problems. Host one of the things you have taxpayer solve their written frequently about was the new tax law that was passed and signed into law by the president. Is the i. R. S. Ready to implement that . Guest that was a major concern of mine because of the budget cuts that the i. R. S. Has experienced, since particularly since 2010, about 20 in inflation adjusted dollars. A major list like en frequentlt a new tax law which requires about 400 new tax new changes to forms. There are 140 Filing Seasons systems that need to be reprogrammed. People need to be retrained. Taxpayers need to be educated. And thats on top of its regular work. I have been very concerned about that. The i. R. S. Is plugging along doing things, but it has put in a budget request for additional funding for tax reform implementation to congress. Host if there were deficiencies leading up to this, what were they caused by . Guest i think some of it is that theres been an underestimation of the importance of Taxpayer Service and outreach and education. I think that people have not given full credence to the fact that any major change is going to bring great anxiety to the taxpayers of the united states. They want stability in their lives in terms of their relationship with the tax collector. And not having answers and not knowing and not necessarily being able to get through on the phones or the i. R. S. Cuts its tax law question phone line off on april the day after Filing Season ends. If you call on that day, its like theres nobody there to answer. And to me, particularly with the new law, thats just when im thinking, well, how is this going to affect me next year . I finished my 2017 return. I see what happened in 2017. Whats going to go away or whats going to be added in 2018 . Thats when im picking up the phone and calling the i. R. S. As of now there will be nobody there to answer the phone. Im very concerned about that. Host these are. So things that well consider in our hour with nina olson. If you have questions for her 20 7488,000 for the eastern and central time zones. And 2027488001 for the mountain and pacific time zones. You can tweet questions or comments. Among the questions that taxpayers may have at this time, what are they . What are they looking to the i. R. S. To get answers for . Guest what we saw in december as the concern about the property tax limitation. I think there was a great deal of confusion and its still working its way through. I think well probably be facing some fallout of property tax limitation. I think there was a great deal years as people say, well, i paid in advance and that should be a contribution to my state or whatever. Whether the courts uphold that i dont know. Now what you are seeing, i think, in most peoples minds, is are there withholding their withholding amounts correct . The i. R. S. Put out new withholding tables but they are still working on that w4 form, where you used to claim exemptions now there is no personal exemption under the new law for this current year, and so you have to redesign that form. The i. R. S. Is also working on a little website, like a calculator on their website, but they dont have the new form or calculator out. People are going to have to fudge. I tried to do it for myself last week. It took me literally about two hours to calculate what i thought was the right amount to be withheld every two weeks, which is how i get paid, to make sure that i wasnt underwithheld, but i also wasnt putting a lot of money in because i dont particularly want to give an interest free loan to anybody. Host normally in those kind of questions in the past, someone would call the i. R. S. , someone most pick up, someone likely could have an answer. Guest or you could go on the website and do the calculator. They are running around trying to get that out. They realize thats critical. Then like i say, there are about 400 forms, publications, rulings that have to be revived based on this law. And thats going to take a year to a year and a half if not much longer going forward. Just to get basic information out of just the basic provisions of the law. Host listen to the words of the treasury secretary who was interviewed about the implementation process and get his response. Show you his response but get your take. Here he is. Its a massive amount of work at treasury and the i. R. S. Yesterday we Just Announced the new withholding tables so people will get tax breaks in february. I would say the good news is, there is nothing that we have identified so far that we think is particularly problematic, that we think we need a technical correction. There are like 80 sections of the bill that are left to the secretary to put out regulations. A lot of work at treasury and the i. R. S. Very often when you pass new tax legislation the i. R. S. Has more work, but there doesnt seem to be new evidence of hiring more i. R. S. Agents. Is there an effort to get more agents . Or you dont need to do that. This touches every single aspect of the i. R. S. From technology to processes to forms. And were speaking with congress about getting additional funding for the implementation. We would expect that we would hire a significant number of people to help with the implementation. Host what do you get from that . Guest i agree with him in the way that how hes assessed it. In fact, the administration put out a request just a formal request for 397 million over two years. 2018 and 2019. In that is 1,000 what we call fulltime equivalent hours positions to deal with outreach education, taxpayer assistance. Thats new hires and thats significant. I think just the two year, we have to do our programming now to be able to do the testing, etc. , for next Filing Season. And its really just 11 monthsway. Thats not very long in something as massive as this to really be redesigning a significant number of the systems. Delays in getting that there are two things, the i. R. S. Will implement this bill. This law. But then if they dont get the funding, what will they take the money from in order to reprogram the systems and things like that . Thats where im really concerned. We have seen that happen before funding s. Did not get to implement the Affordable Care act and they put on hold very taxpayer friend friendly and important improvements to the computers, system, for assistance. And im worried if we dont get that funding, well that again well see that start again. Host the i. R. S. National Taxpayer Advocate. 2027488,000. D 202748001 in the mountandand pacific time zones. We start with new jersey. Caller hello. Can you tell me has the i. R. S. Changed the way its implementing the Affordable Care act . I was told many times on washington journal the only way for them to collect a penalty was to withhold my refund. And just about a month or so ago i got a letter asking me to file amended return showing proof of payment or else pay a penalty. What did they do to the Affordable Care act . And one more thing. On this new tax law, does the penalty go away in 2018 . Or would i have to wait until 2020 to avoid that penalty . Thank you. Guest first on ott penalty it is my understanding, believe me i am still studying the act the same time as everybody else. Its a very long bill. It does not go away for the tax year 2018 for the returns are you filing in 2019. My understanding is it goesway for the returns of the tax year 2019, for the returns you file in 2020. If im wrong, somebody can correct me. But thats my understanding of it. Now, in terms of the implementation, the law says that the only way the i. R. S. Can collect this is by either basically offsetting the refund or taxpayers making those payments. You have a refund on your regular tax return and the penalty. They will offset the amount of the penalty up to the amount of your refund. It will still be a liability on the books if you get a refund the next year they can offset it if you owe it from the year before, they can offset it against your next years refund as well. But they cant levy, they cant go into your bank account, your wages. That doesnt mean that they wont send letters out to you. If they have questions about whether you have the correct coverage or you some people have not filed the forms to reconcile what subsidy they have gotten in advance and then what they might owe at the end of the year. The i. R. S. Will normally through their processing of the return send out letters saying, please send us this information or else we will impose this penalty because we dont think that you have the right coverage. That may be the notice that you have gotten. And that may be something thats very easily resolved if you have the receipts or evidence and things like that. That goes to you need to call the i. R. S. And get through on the phones and depending what time of year it is, thats a very challenging thing. I would not ignore that notice. I always tell people do not ignore notices. The worst thing you can do is not respond because the i. R. S. In many ways is a machine and it will keep rolling and nonresponse you agree you did something wrong. You dont want to be in that conversation. Host today is the first day people can file . Guest yes, january 29. Host so lakeland, florida. John, go ahead. Caller good morning. The i. R. S. Is antiquated. We live in the 21st century. Did you ever hear of black hain and algorithms . Why cant i. R. S. Do the same thing. At the end as your income goes up, theyll take more out f your income goes down, they take less out. At the end of the year they at the end as send you a check or rand paul says he want as smaller government. Why dont you advocate being a yist and talk to steve guest im not a lobbyist. Im a federal employ year employee, i was appointed by the secretary in stwun but my job is described by congress in the Internal Revenue code, is be an i. R. S. Employee but be independent and speak up for taxpayers. In fact your points are well taken about how antiquated the i. R. S. Is. I have written pages and pages and pages in my annual reports pointing out how antiquated it is. And how behind the times it is compared to other tax systems around the world. Its not just changing its the use of artificial intelligence. He i. R. S. Has the two oldest databases in the federal government, according to the Government Accountability office, which are the systems where we hold all the individual Tax Information and all the business taxpayer information. Thats scary when you think about that. On the other hand, one of the things that we dont have in our system, the system that you described where the i. R. S. Knows what money you have coming in, we dont although we have a lot of information reporting of wages and interest in dividend income, other countries have what they call a pay as you earn system. So that what you make from your employer is withheld at an exact rate and all you have to do at the end of the year, you dont even have to do anything. Your the government knows this information and tells you whether that you are done unless you have had selfemployment income or you have had some stock sales or Something Like that. Then and only then do you have to file. That amount of information reporting is a burden can be a burden on employers or independent contractors. So far there hasnt been a political will to do that kind of thing. My office has actually, this year, proposed Something Like that and were working on a study next year to show what the rest of the world does and what steps the i. R. S. Could take to get a little closer to that. Host a couple related questions off twitter. Dianne says how come they cant do a better job except file earl live. Nor person asks what about security . If they fixed anything . Guest from about 2004 my office, because we get the cases from taxpayers, we get about 240,000 case as year from taxpayers who really have problems with the i. R. S. And the number one issue that we have had since about 2010 has been Identity Theft. And it really blossomed in it used to be that identity bleft was maybe a one off person stealing getting a Social Security card and trying something too cute by half. It moved into organized crime and organized efforts. And thats what we have seen. The i. R. S. Has a lot of filters to try to using artificial intelligence, to try to identify the trends and schemes and things like that. But some things that have really happened that have helped is were now Congress Last year last year was the first Filing Season, this is the second, ordered employers to give us their w2 information by january 31 when they file it with Social Security. And what has done is given us today is the 29th. By wednesday we will have most of the w2 information so we can run returns through as they come in to see whether this is a fraudulent return because the w2 is wade up and doesnt match the real return made up and doesnt match the real return. So last year we were able to not stop as many legitimate taxpayers. When we didnt have that information, we didnt know which one was the correct return. You have to stop both. And that puts a burden on the legitimate taxpayer. I do have to say thats getting better. But i have to say the thieves are very, very clever. And for every mole that you whack down, there is another one that pops up in another scheme. Its just very, very difficult. My thing has been if you are always going to have some legitimate taxpayers caught up in this. And so what you need to do is give them one employee assigned to their issue. Dont make them call and tell their story 20,000 times to different people. Just this year, the i. R. S. Has agreed to do that. Its taken them since 2005 to agree. Im sorry it took that long, but now you can get one person assigned to your case who knows your case and will really work with you so you wont fall through the cracks. Of course if it doesnt work, you have the Taxpayer Advocate service and there is an office local Taxpayer Advocate office at least one in every state. There are actually 79 around the country. Some states there are more than one. And there you will get one employee who stays with you from start to finish. If you have more than one year caught up, were not going to close the case until we resolve all of those issues. Ost Taxpayer Advocate dot i. R. S. Dot gov. North carolina, hi. Caller hi. How are you. Im calling in to ask a question like this year will you be able to take your interest off your home and your property taxes . One pay per get month. I work for the state. Dont really know. I want to see if i can still use this next year or will it end after this year . Guest so when you say this year, for the year that you are filing for, namely 2017, you will be old law is in place so youll be able to deduct your state and local income taxes if you can itemize. As well as your property taxes on your personal residence. Now then the same thing with your mortgage interest. There is the current restriction that the loan has to be 1 million or less. Now, going forward, for this year, meaning 2018, the year that were in that well be filing in 2019, the rules have changed. And so there is a cap for your state and local income taxes and then your property taxes combined of 10,000. If theres more than 10,000 and you claimed more than 10,000 in 2017, youll only be able to claim up to 10,000 in 2018. For mortgages, new mortgages the cap you can deduct your mortgage interest but only up to a loan for 750,000, except some Mortgage Loans are grandfathered in. If you had a loan today or yesterday or rather the end million, d it was a then thats grandfathered in. But there is a lot of on that mortgage interest side, thats where you really need to look at the rules once the i. R. S. Issues the guidance on that. And also call the i. R. S. And try to get answers to your tax law questions. Or you may feel like you need to go to a preparer. One thing that i really recommended to the i. R. S. , i think its just absolutely necessary, in addition to keeping the phones for tax law questions opened beyond april 17 this year, is that there be a dedicated phone line like for people like you to be able to call a toll free number to ask those questions without having to hire someone right away. The answer may be, oh, these are the basic rules. And you may feel, well, i dont understand the basic rules enough. Now i need to consult with someone. Thats fine. But your government should be able to give you those basic rules and that basic information. Host this is the 2017 1040, any wager changes to this one . Guest not really. The main change is more in procedural when refunds will be issued for people who are getting the earned income tax credit and the advanced child tax are getting the Child Tax Credit and they were involved in that. Heir refunds will be delayed until february 15. And they probably wont go out until the week or 10 days after that date. Thats the law. Host delay is attributed to what . Guest that was a measure congress put in. They were very concerned about improper payments for the earned income credit. Which is a refundable credit. You dont even have to owe any taxes. And you would still get money back. Its given to the working poor primarily who have children. So its to go to lowincome working families. But theres been its a very complex provision so theres a lot of error in it. Its not the most erroneous thing but the dollars going out, congress has been concerned. So they said lets get these w2s in early. Give the i. R. S. A chance to match them, a chance to look at these returns coming in before we issue the refunds. So they have said, no refunds every year on those two provisions for returns with those provisions until april 15. Host sheila in louisiana. Hi. Caller good morning. I have a question. The question is about publication 17 for the 2017 income tax year. It is still incorrect on the website, the i. R. S. Could you tell me when you are going to update it . Guest you are it is an old publication. Have you checked this morning . Week since last the Filing Season hadnt begun the forms are for the 2016 tax year, which was last years Filing Season. Its my understanding that a lot the new forms went up probably over this weekend. But if not, im going to do something very unusual, which is give you my email address. And you can let me know so i can get it fixed. So my email address is nina. E. Olson i. R. S. Gov. If this morning or later this afternoon its not the 2017 version for use with 2017 tax forms. Host let us know how many people respond. Guest its interesting. I tell people, if you have problems you can come to meefment but we have local offices in each if this morning later this afternoon me. But we have local offices in each state and those phone numbers are in our website and blue pages of the phone books if anybody has a phone book. And go to them because they are the ones that are going to really open the case and assign you a case advocate. If you email me, please dont put your Social Security number in an email. Just tell me the story the issue then ill have one of my staff call you back. Its interesting people do email me. Its a good way for me to understand whats going on and what taxpayers are experiencing. And they are very respectful of the fact if you send me 20,000 emails i wont be able to answer them. Host whats publication 17 . Guest it is sort of your taxes. It describes everything, pretty much everything about an what the tax, individual taxpayer needs. It contains a lot of the instructions that you would other wigse have to get individual otherwise have to get individually. It used to be available, could you call and order it and it used to be available in libraries and things like that. The i. R. S. Has been reducing the number of forms it makes available to people in paper. We get a lot of frustration about that. Its a cost saving measure, but i think its pendy wise and poundfoolish. Host this is mike for nina, florida. Hi. Caller hi. Im just calling for us lowincome earners like 30,000 or less, next year its supposed to be 24,000 standard deduction. And my question is, would you recommend changing the number of dependents you claim . The other thing is are your property taxes and any other deductions f. They dont add up to 24,000 deductions, if they dont add up to 24,000 you would take the standard deduction . Guest the latter thing, thats the intention of the law. Thats what congress viewed i agree with this. This that is simplification if you dont have to keep all your receipts and stuff and you can just take your 12,000 if youre single or 24,000 if youre married. It may be that its just not worth it will be better for you to just claim the 24,000 standard deduction. If you are itemized or below over below that amount. In terms of your exemptions, again what i was talking about at the beginning, the i. R. S. Has given all the employers, made public to the employers, new withholding percentages based on the new law. But they are not as precise as wed like them to be because we they are based on old exemption things like the personal exemption and spousal exemption which dont exist anymore for this coming year. I would wait a bit until the i. R. S. Is supposed to get out the new w4 maybe by the end of february, and i would sort of wait a bit to see when that form gets out, i would definitely do that and give it to your employer. To make sure youre withheld properly. That will enable them to do the right calculation. At the same time, theyll have on their website, theyll have a calculator where you would put in basically your what you think your property taxes are going to be and your state income tax and mortgage interest. And there you can tell whether you should be doinged standard deduction or not. That will doing the standard deduction or not. I tried to do it myself just walking through what i knew of the law. It took me about two hours. If you want to do that, you could on a rainy sunday. Host several of these states that have high taxes, there have been reports they are going to try to find work around. What goes through your mind when you hear that . Guest i think theyll be in litigation for a long time. There is a trickledown effect to any federal law change because many, many states their income taxes are start with the federal adjusted gross income, and then add this back and deduct this. And then that gives you the state taxable income, then they factor it on. I know maryland, for example, has determined, their treasury has determined many, many, many of their taxpayers will end up with a tax increase because maryland piggybacks on the feds. And they are trying to figure out a way to make it revenue neutral. Change their laws so you end up where you were in 2017. You dont owe more because of the federal changes. Im sure that there are other states wrestling with that. Some states may see a reduction in revenue. I think it depends on how the states work off of the federal income tax. This whole issue with property tax, i think, again, it just underestimates how people feel peal want stability in their taxes. People want stability in their taxes. They dont want to get into i dont know whether im owing too much or too little. What does this mean to me . When there is a vacuum and there is not enough information out there, people react. Thats why i think its so important for the i. R. S. To get out there, proactively, explain provisions, calm people down, and get as much information out there as quickly as possible. And have that phone number up there. We dont know what taxpayers are worried about. We need to hear from taxpayers. One way to do that is hear their questions. Host from akron, ohio. Mike. Caller yes. I dont have a question just a concern. Im a victim of i. D. 24e69 myself theft myself. Will i never forget the date, august 9, 2013. Somebody walked into a Fifth Third Bank in chicago, withdrew 4,000 out of my checking account, and then an hour later went into another Fifth Third Bank and took 4,000 out of my savings account. I get a phone call that afternoon asking me if i have been to chicago lately. Apparently the second bank somebody had they finally found out five minutes that person left the lobby that they were taken. I have a ethnic last name. There is nobody in akron, ohio, with my last name outside of me, my dad, and brother. There might be five families. The thing sim not nigerian, the person who did this was nigerian. On top of that he misspelled my first name. My first name is michael. He had the a e transcribed. Biggest insult of my life. I have detective from chicago working on the case. The Akron Police Department on this case. I have no satisfaction. I have everything i can. How could they do that . Twice in one day . Host thanks, caller. Guest this is the scourge of Identity Theft. And theres so many moving pieces. What you described is the Financial Sector dealing with that. And the second bank obviously had done some very good training with their employees about recognizing suspicious transactions and questionable transactions. And i think, this is regrettable, that everybodys been slow to come to recognize how pervasive and horrible this is. I keep saying to people, there is nothing more important than your identity. Its your identity. And to have it taken from you. Then to spend the next four, five years of your life having to deal with the repercussions of your identity being taken is devastating in itself. Do know that the banks have doing a lot re more training. Again an earlier caller talked about blotching. Artificial intelligence and doi more training. Again an earlier data mining and fraud detection filleders being able to see a transaction filters, being able to see a transaction that raises questions and stop it right there and ask for more documentation and identification. And look at that identification. And see if its suspicious like spelling your first name wrong. The tax side of that is, if to hing like that happens you, you need to call the i. R. S. And let them know so they can give you they will make you prove this happened. In your case you filed a Police Report so you can just send that to the i. R. S. And for the next Filing Season, they will give you what is p. I. N. , a. P. Separate number that you and you alone know. Its not like your Social Security number because your Social Security number is already out there. You have to put that on your return. But you also put your i. P. P. I. N. On it. That way if the i. R. S. Gets a return that doesnt have the p. I. N. , they wont process it. They know that thats either from the thief or you forgot your p. I. N. If you put it on, theyll know its from you and you wont be burdened yet again by that Identity Theft because your rush will go through and they will stop return will go through and stop the others. In your case because the fraud didnt happen in the tax system it happened outside the tax system with the banks, you need to call the i. R. S. , if you havent already. Sometimes that system doesnt work. Sometimes returns, before you had an i. P. P. I. N. And they are held up. In that case i recommend you come to the Taxpayer Advocate service f you are in ohio we have several offices in ohio. Cleveland, cincinnati. And they will take your case and work with you and stay with you through the whole thing until we get this all figured out. Im so sorry you are having to go through this. Host nina is the i. R. S. National Taxpayer Advocate. She founded executive director of the Community Tax law project. She has her masters from georgetown. Law degree from North Carolina central university. How did you end up in this position . Guest by accident. You mentioned i had founded the first lowincome taxpayer clinic in the country that operated like legal aid. In virginia we covered the entire state of virginia for lowincome folks who might have problems with the i. R. S. And with the state tax agentcy. We got volunteer lawyers and accountants to help represent those taxpayers before the i. R. S. That brought me to the attention of congress. So i testified before congress about the problems that those folks were having. And the next thing i knew in 2001 people said we want you to be the national Taxpayer Advocate. So here i am. Host never been a position like that before . Gipe this position had been guest this position had been around in one form nor another the 1970s but congress put it into law in the early 1990s. In the late 1980s and literal 1990s and a reformed it, in 1998 they made a major revision to the office it is today. There was one other person who was there who took the job for about a year and a half and then i have been it since. St how many staff in your office, whats the budget for your office . Guest my budget is 206 million with about 12 million we make office, whats the budget for your in grants to lowincome taxpayer clinics rned the country around the country to represent these taxpayers. I have about 1,700 15 employees around the united states. In washington, d. C. , there are about 200, 250 people in the headquarters. In the headqua on rters working various things. I have a whole branch that works systemic problems, local 200 somewhated thousand cases from taxpayers, but we look at, here is a that doesnt just affect one taxpayer, it affects a group. Be the law is written in a way that has unintended way the law is administer side harming taxpayers, we call that systemic i have a group of folks that look at that and work with the i. R. S. On teams and changes to processes and most importantly, this is lot of work, reviewing i. R. S. Instructions to them ees before they send out to employees f. We can solve problems before they each go out employees that create problems, that is a really good thing. Mark from norfolk, virginia, go ahead. Aller yes, good morning, mrs. Olson. I want to thank cspan for having on you. Ago, i calledears in and you made yourself available, i was able to leave of the r with one producers and it made a huge wifes nce in me and my tax life and so now we have been of three or four years, being able to get some s, versus owing like ungodly amount of money. I wanted to say thank you very much and keep up the good work. Mark, in a general sense, what problem about you have and how was it solved . Caller what happened, the owed 80,000 in a general taxes. A what it was, there were couple revisions over some years boggedme kind of way got down in the system and so after journal, i think mrs. Olson, i think number one out of er two person washington, d. C. Contacted me and that made a huge difference. Was dealing out of your denver office, mrs. Olson and the staff unbelievable. With the help of the Taxpayer Advocate and my accountant, our just turned around like drastically, and ill never that and i thank cspan and mrs. Olson, thank you very much. Really nice to hear. Sometimes we do drop the ball and again, if we do drop the want to know about it. And i go out to my staff and you having e is lems, do you need help there a technical or legal issue you need to work through . To get this eed Problem Solved . But im very glad to hear that kind of thing. Want to Say Something about the amount, you know, you thing. Ned 80,000 there is a new law that and effect i wrote about in the annual report to congress, in 2015, congress law that said that anybody who owes more than 50,000 to the i. R. S. , and has a certain point, i. R. S. Certified, the must certify to the department of state that these people owe 50,000 or more, this year it is 51,000 adjusted for inflation, they will not be able to get a new passport or if they apply renewal, they will not be able to get the renewal until they deal with their tax debt. Either get into pay it in installment nto an agreement or have an offer and compromise, the i. R. S. Created for example, if you really cannot afford to pay your taxes, then you can get called currently not collectible status, where we action ke collection against you, but the debt still is there and will accrue pen alt and he interest. This is very serious and i about how of concerns the i. R. S. Is administering this program. I wrote in the annual report and blog that i also just if you have a t debt over 50,000 i recommend ou come to the Taxpayer Advocate service very quickly so we can work with you, like this turned out what hes saying, i cant discuss the ase, but from what he said, there was a lot of misunderstanding and that wasnt owed. Mount that was we have a lot of cases it takes us a while to get the i. R. S. To and at and go through figure out what the correct amount is, often less than 50,000 f. We can get that, you wont be caught up in this program. Local taxpayerur dvocate and we have on our website, Office Numbers for each state and you can say that you cspan from his on the national Taxpayer Advocate. Call. Suggested you host lincoln, nebraska, mark is next, hi. Helping es, ive been i. R. S. Cid, off and on since 1985. And i was wondering, on the 211 is that 10 for the first and 7 for the reward . Guest so the cid is criminal Investigation Division of the Revenue Service and i think what youre referring to whistle blower, percentage of hat your lead would provide to criminal Investigation Division your at they collect from lead that you would get a percentage based on that tip. Admit, im not familiar with the percentages. Email want to leave your address, or your phone number ith the folks here at cspan, can have someone call you and more specifically answer your questions. My staff who, on you know, works on that, works that program is working well, etcetera. Staten island, new york, doug is next for nina olson, hi. Cspan, i ank you, wasnt aware of the national Taxpayer Advocate, so it is a this. Ure to actually see we just dont get this from other stations, thank god for you guys. You, mrs. Olson, i want to ask three quick questions. Number one, im disabled and i dont have a computer, will i get be able to call and tax forms from the government . It was very hard the last two of phone calls until i finally got through, number one. Two, has anything really changed from last year or will i use d deductions, 1040a, im retired, and have just social bit of and little pension. Yeah. These two things, i was get ring, how does one through this if theyre not going to be able to get the forms through the mail anymore, have of us dont computers. Host thanks, caller. Guest you raise a critically question. My office did Research Study this year and we identified are 41 million u. S. Taxpayers, based on nationwide sample ofpresentative taxpayers who filed returns within the last three years, are actively taxpayers. 41 million u. S. Taxpayers that have Broadband Access in their home. They are doing dialup. 14 million re are. S. Taxpayers that have no Internet Access in their home. Here is disabled are a large percentage of that group. My message to the i. R. S. , the. R. S. Has been because of budget cuts, really trying to push people online. They have been, you know, trying get, they think that is the cheapest thing and it may be in the short term, the cheapest thing, but my what ive been trying to say to them, you away from any Single Service delivery channel, you to maintain the phones, maintain facetoface, have you mailing out forms, as well as online, and you have strongest case in point. If you have difficulty i dont want everybody in the world to call the Taxpayer Advocate service to seriously, cucall your local Taxpayer Advocate if you really cant get it and we will find the rest of this online at cspan. Org, click the series tab. The house about to come back in and recessing until 4 30 when legislative work starts with seven measures on the calendar. Including one seeking to prevent sexual abuse of children in sports and in other dealing with small businesses. The White House Briefing started a bit too late to bring it to you here. You can watch it on cspan3 or cspan. Org. The speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The chair will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. Chaplain conroy let us pray. Merciful god, we give you thanks for giving us another day. You not only design, but create. You sustain and shape what we know as reality. In your hands, as the craftsman and artist, we are estimates for the time you have given us. Fitting into the palm of your hand, we can accomplish your will and produce what you have in mind for us. Or we can prove unfit to achieve your purpose for the tasks at hand