Richard E. Neal, the chairman of the Democrat-controlled Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee chairman John Lewis have called for the "immediate appointment" of a permanent National Taxpayer Advocate to succeed Nina Olson, who stepped down at the end of July.

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.

The National Taxpayer Advocate's latest Annual Report to Congress largely ignores the struggles American expatriates have been facing, an examination of the various documents that comprise it reveals.