Department of Treasury Responds to Letter

As you may recall I sent an open letter to congress and the Department of Treasury asking them to update their expense standards. Less then a month after I sent the letter the IRS announced they were indeed making the change, and on November 1st I received a letter from the Department of Treasury regarding my open letter. The message claims that Secretary Paulson had requested they respond to my letter informing me of the new changes and explaining the delay. According to the letter the delay was necessary to implement significant improvements that will enhance the accuracy and fairness of the standards. In addition the letter claims that Automated Collection System (ACS) personnel have been instructed to use judgement when applying standards, which was another complaint of my letter. I’m glad to hear the Department of Treasury is treating this issue with the importance it deserves. Hopefully the new standards will help make the process a little easier on taxpayers that need to negotiate IRS tax settlements.