EVOLUTION OF THE OFFICE OF THE TAXPAYER ADVOCATE
The Office of the Taxpayer Ombudsman was created by the Internal Revenue
Service in 1979 to serve as the primary advocate, within the IRS, for taxpayers.
This position was codified in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TBOR 1), included in the
Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act of 1988, (TAMRA), Pub. L. No. 100-
647. In TBOR 1, Congress added IRC § 7811, granting the Ombudsman the
statutory authority to issue a Taxpayer Assistance Order (TAO) “if, in the
determination of the Ombudsman, the taxpayer is suffering or about to suffer a
significant hardship as a result of the manner in which the internal revenue laws
are being administered by the Secretary.”1 Further, the Taxpayer Ombudsman
and the Assistant Commissioner (Taxpayer Services) were directed to jointly
provide an annual report to Congress about the quality of taxpayer services
provided by the IRS. This report was delivered directly to the Senate Committee
on Finance and the House Committee on Ways and Means.2
In 1996, Taxpayer Bill of Rights 2 (TBOR 2) amended IRC § 7802 (the
predecessor to IRC § 7803), replacing the Office of the Taxpayer Ombudsman
with the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate.3 The Joint Committee on Taxation set
forth the following reasons for change:
To date, the Taxpayer Ombudsman has been a career civil servant
selected by and serving at the pleasure of the IRS Commissioner. Some
may perceive that the Taxpayer Ombudsman is not an independent
advocate for taxpayers. In order to ensure that the Taxpayer Ombudsman
has the necessary stature within the IRS to represent fully the interests of
taxpayers, Congress believed it appropriate to elevate the position to a
position comparable to that of the Chief Counsel. In addition, in order to
ensure that the Congress is systematically made aware of recurring and
unresolved problems and difficulties taxpayers encounter in dealing with
the IRS, the Taxpayer Ombudsman should have the authority and
responsibility