In her midyear report to Congress back in June, the National Taxpayer Advocate noted that of some 73 million calls the IRS received, only about one in 10 actually reached an IRS employee, around the same percentage as had been reported during the previous tax season. But the time the average taxpayer spent waiting on hold this year "rose from 20 minutes to 29 minutes," NTA Erin Collins said.

Many U.S. expats are still enjoying the sense that the annual nightmare of getting their American taxes done has come and gone, and they have a few months of peace before they need to begin worrying again. Others still have a few loose ends to tie up, and are keeping an eye on the final deadline for these left-to-complete bits that is moving ever closer by the day. (Monday, Oct. 17, in case you're wondering...)

Recently, a reader of the American Expat Financial News Journal got in touch to say that they were in the process of beginning to plan for Tax Year 2022 – and as part of this, wanted to know what help, if any, they might be able to get from a component of the IRS known as the "Taxpayer Advocate Service".

Few American expatriates who follow the goings-on in Washington will have been surprised to notice that the words "FATCA" and "FBAR" weren't uttered during yesterday's House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing, featuring National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins...

Fresh from delivering the National Taxpayer Advocate's annual doorstopper of a report to Congress, NTA Erin M. Collins will address some of the issues currently challenging U.S. taxpayers in a House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing next Tuesday.

The IRS needs to change its regulations with respect to American taxpayers' obligations to report on their overseas account holdings by "eliminating duplication" of the FBAR and FATCA reporting requirements, as well as by "excluding accounts maintained by U.S. persons in countries where they are bona fide residents," National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins has told Congress, in her annual report.

Erin M. Collins, who was named last March to succeed Nina E. Olson as National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA)  at the U.S. Treasury, forcefully called this week for the harmonization of FBAR and FATCA reporting requirements for overseas taxpayers – which she noted the IRS had failed to do until now, in spite of previous NTA recommendations, as well as those of such other stakeholders as the Government Accountability Office – in her first annual report to Congress.

The U.S. Treasury Department and IRS have named an ex-KPMG executive to succeed Nina E. Olson as National Taxpayer Advocate. 

In her 2019 Annual Report to Congress, acting National Taxpayer Advocate Bridget Roberts said the U.S. IRS needed to significantly raise its game with respect to the way it carries out its role as the nation's tax collecting agency.

But to "truly transform the organization" – which, she noted in a  five-page preface to this year's NTA report, Congress effectively called on it to do last year when it passed the so-called Taxpayer First Act – the IRS "needs to rethink the way it operates", starting with "a culture shift".

Soon-to-retire National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson has stepped into a growing debate in the U.S. about whether the IRS should expand an existing option to enable taxpayers with simple tax matters to file their federal returns online, and for free.

Nina Olson, who has spoken out forcefully on behalf of American expatriates a number of  times in recent years during her tenure as the IRS's National Taxpayer Advocate, has announced that she will be retiring at the end of July.