We Are All in This Together

In my last column I wrote about the growing professional demands on us and how those demands require perseverance, patience, grace, and kindness. Rather than despair, we need to dig deep and put our best foot forward. While this is the appropriate, if difficult, response for a lot of reasons, the overarching reason is because we are individually part of the United States tax system. In other words, we are all in this together – legislators, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state tax administrators, enrolled agents and other tax professionals, and taxpayers. As National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) members, we have a continuing opportunity to advocate for (and influence) improvements in how the system works.

We are each obliged to stay current (both to uphold our professional responsibilities and to help our clients navigate an increasingly unstable and complex tax code) and to ensure they make good decisions and file accurate tax returns in a technical environment that makes it difficult to do so.

Never has the need for improvements in the IRS and state agencies been more obvious. We see operational inefficiencies and missteps that throw sand in the gears of the system. Enrolled agents (in general) and NAEA (in particular) have a long history of advocacy. We need to have a voice in legislation that can make the system work more fairly and to explain the consequences of legislation that create undue complexity.

IRS culture is one of compliance, rather than service. When asked to provide services such as stimulus payments, the IRS tends to take a compliance-oriented view to implementation. Unnecessary complexity leaves taxpayers confused and tax professionals scrambling.

The IRS is at the heart of the tax administration system and when the agency is struggling, we will all struggle. We are all in this together.

So how can you make a difference? Get educated and get involved. Participate in your state NAEA organization if you have one. Volunteer to serve on a committee at the state or national NAEA level. Learn how to advocate with state and federal legislators when they are at home in your district. Help
establish a local group of tax professionals to monitor state tax legislation that might impinge on your ability to effectively serve your clients. The more you get involved, the more you will get back.

If you are already involved, thank you for helping us come together. Please collaborate with NAEA members in your state, in other states, and with NAEA committee members and staff. Learn from and help each other. We are all here to serve and improve our profession, to help each other succeed, and to help ensure the entire tax system serves taxpayers in our communities and country fairly and equitably.

The more of us who get involved, the more we can accomplish. I love this association for all it has given me. I have a broad network of colleagues I have been able to learn from and serve with and the education I receive from my peers through classes, informal discussion groups, conferences,
phone calls and email is continuous and invaluable.

In the meantime, NAEA’s Government Relations team is constantly advocating for these same improvements with the IRS, with the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees, and supports members when state legislation threatens enrolled agents’ ability to practice.

You can also help by voting in NAEA’s Board election December 1–15, 2021. This year we will be voting to select a president-elect, secretary, and five directors. Please take the time to read the candidate profiles (in an email from NAEA) and to watch the candidate forums when they are announced. You will receive a ballot in your email inbox shortly before the election opens. Please vote. Elections matter.