IRS effort to close tax assistance centers could face delay

The House voted Thursday night to approve a measure that could delay the closing of 68 Internal Revenue Service taxpayer assistance centers planned for this fall. IRS officials would not be allowed to shut down the centers until the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration studied the "impact that such closures would have on taxpayer compliance" and shared the findings with House and Senate appropriations committees.

The measure was included in the House's version of the fiscal 2006 Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill (H.R. 3058).

Under the bill, the IRS would need to reconsider the model it used to decide which of 400 assistance centers to close. Officials would need to ask the agency's IG, oversight board, employees and taxpayer advocate for advice on types of data to collect and analyze, and the relative weight each category of data should receive.

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, has called the IRS plan to shut down 68 centers, issued in May, "rushed and not well thought out," and has said that the data used to place centers on the closure list "will come into serious question." For example, the agency failed to consider that the workload at some centers might appear low because those locations have scaled back their hours, she said.

"I'm pleased to see the growing bipartisan support for those who perform the work of the federal government," Kelley said Thursday in a statement praising the House's action.

But IRS officials have argued that their analysis was sound, and have said that some centers could be closed due to the growing use of online tax assistance.

In selecting the 68 facilities on the list, the IRS looked at five factors: location, employee costs, facilities costs, workload and demographics. Of those, location, demographics and workload received the most weight. The closure plan maintains a "significant presence" in the top 35 U.S. metropolitan areas and also ensures that no state loses more than half of its assistance centers or has a single center responsible for more than 40 percent of its customers, according to the IRS.

The White House stopped short of issuing a veto threat over the provision, but in a policy statement issued Wednesday announced that the administration "strenuously objects" to language that "limits the ability of the IRS to maximize the efficiency and quality of taxpayer service by shifting from taxpayer assistance centers to the more efficient and higher service quality telephone and Internet options."