Laura Snyder, as we noted earlier this year, is the sole overseas member of a grass roots volunteer advisory organization known as the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel that works – alongside the office of the National Taxpayer Advocate – to call the IRS's attention to issues that American taxpayers are struggling with, but which the agency for various reasons may have failed to realize were problematic. 

Contrary to an apparently widespread belief back in the U.S. – and especially, it sometimes seems, among certain lawmakers in Washington – most American expats are not rich, and don’t live abroad in order to avoid their U.S. tax obligations, a new survey has found.

Last week, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson retired from the role she held for 19 years. During this time, the IRS, of which the National Taxpayer Advocate's office is a part, adopted hundreds of her recommendations, and Congress introduced dozens of bills to implement others, 15 of which were signed into law, according to published accounts of Olson's legacy....