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WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo continued a series of roundtable discussions with key stakeholders to gather insight on IRS modernization efforts that will improve accessibility and service equity as part of implementing the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Congress earlier this year, made a historic ten-year investment in the IRS to modernize tax administration. At Secretary Yellen’s direction, the IRS is currently developing a Strategic Operating Plan, which will set out a path for these critical improvements. To inform this plan, Secretary Yellen and Deputy Secretary Adeyemo have engaged leaders, advocates, and critical stakeholders on how best to improve IRS services and improve tax fairness.

As part of this outreach, Deputy Secretary Adeyemo convened a roundtable discussion with national advocates representing underserved communities to identify ways the agency can improve accessibility and responsiveness to all taxpayers.

During the conversation, Deputy Secretary Adeyemo focused on the challenges underserved taxpayers face – including economically disadvantaged as well as rural and urban communities. Participants underscored the need to remove barriers taxpayers face in communicating with the agency, including by ensuring readily available service and information across digital platforms to increase to taxpayer responsiveness and accessibility.

The Deputy Secretary highlighted the opportunity to revitalize the agency in ways that ensure taxpayers can easily and expediently access the benefits, credits and refunds to which they’re entitled.

The Deputy Secretary and national advocates were joined by U.S. Treasury and IRS officials, including Counselor for Racial Equity Janis Bowdler and Counselor for Tax Policy and Implementation Natasha Sarin.

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