Around 170 million notices sent to individual taxpayers annually
The IRS sends around 170 million notices to individual taxpayers every year to help them claim the credits and deductions they are eligible for and meet their tax obligations. These notices are often long—with extraneous inserts—and difficult for taxpayers to understand. They are filled with complex legal jargon. And they do not clearly and concisely communicate the next steps a taxpayer must take.
As part of ongoing modernization efforts made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS is launching the Simple Notice Initiative to review, redesign, and deploy hundreds of notices, with an immediate focus on the most common notices that individual taxpayers receive.
This initiative builds on the Paperless Processing initiative announced in August 2023 to advance the goal of providing world-class customer service to taxpayers. With these initiatives, taxpayers have the option to go paperless and conveniently submit necessary responses online, and taxpayers will receive clearer and more concise notices from the IRS, so they better understand the actions they need to take.
The IRS is committed to delivering a better taxpayer experience through notices, over the phone, online and in-person. While taxpayers will always have the option to call, the IRS also wants to make it easier for taxpayers to resolve issues without having to pick up the phone. Plain language notices can help the IRS achieve this goal.
For example, the IRS recently conducted a pilot that sent redesigned versions of Notice 5071C to a subset of taxpayers. The Notice 5071C asks taxpayers to verify their identity and tax return online or over the phone to prevent the processing of fraudulent tax returns. As part of the redesign, the IRS shortened the 5071C notice from seven pages to two pages. The IRS improved readability of the notice by updating the font and adding visual enhancements such as headers, icons, and step-by-step instructions. The IRS also clarified instructions and added a QR code that directs taxpayers to the IRS webpage where they can respond to the notice online instead of responding over the phone. See below for an overview of improvements that were made.
The IRS sent the redesigned Notice 5071C to 60,000 taxpayers. Compared to taxpayers who received the original notice, there was a 16% reduction in taxpayers who called the IRS as their first action, and a 6% increase in taxpayers who used the online option. The IRS will apply lessons learned from this pilot, among others, to the Simple Notice Initiative. These changes to this notice will be put in place during coming months.
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