Buried in this week’s “e-News for Tax Professionals” was the following story:
E-Services: Disclosure Authorization and Electronic Account Resolution Applications Retire in August
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Due largely to low usage, the IRS will retire and remove the Disclosure Authorization (DA) and Electronic Account Resolution (EAR) applications from e-Services effective Aug. 11.Last year, users submitted less than 10 percent of all disclosure authorizations through the DA application. Similarly, only three percent of all account-related issues came in through the EAR application.
In anticipation of this change, the IRS has increased the number of employees who process authorizations and has improved internal work processes to decrease the average processing time significantly from the current 10-day processing period.
The IRS will continue to explore better ways to reduce processing time and improve overall service to the users. However, current budget cuts will impact their dedicated resources to this program and they are working to determine the impact on processing time.
Once IRS removes the two applications, former DA users will need to complete Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative, or Form 8821, Tax Information Authorizations, and mail or fax it to the appropriate IRS location listed on the form’s instructions. Please allow at least four days for the authorization to post to the IRS database before requesting a transcript through the Transcript Delivery System. Former EAR users should call the Practitioner Priority Service at 1-866-860-4259 for help resolving account-related issues.
The IRS continues to look for ways to improve its current processes and is exploring an improved electronic solution for DA and EAR in the future.
This is not a good decision by the IRS. As I noted in my earlier post on this, this decision will increase costs for the IRS. As for the supposed ten-day processing time, I’ve had occasions where it’s been four weeks for a POA to post. One POA had to be resubmitted three times (over three months) before it finally made its way into the system.
I know that the National Association of Enrolled Agents is expressing its displeasure to the NAEA; I expect the AICPA to do the same. As for whether the IRS will change its mind over this decision, I have no idea.
Tags: IRS.eServices