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Reports that IRS workers are giving wrong answers as much as one-third of the time on their telephone information lines should not keep taxpayers from using the callin service, says a Radford University business law professor.
“This information service can still be very helpful for a taxpayer," says Wayne Saubert, who worked as an investigator for the IRS for nine years. Saubert says taxpayers can feel “fairly confident" about the accuracy of the answers they receive from the IRS if they take a few simple precautions when they call for information.
“For your own protection in case there is an error, always get the name of the person you’re talking to,” he advises. “After they give you an answer, ask them on what publication, including the page number, they are basing that advice.”
If the IRS worker cannot site a reference for an answer, Prof. Saubert says the information may not be correct. He notes that the telephone workers are told not to answer any tax question if they are not certain about the answer. Instead, they are taught to get the taxpayer’s name and phone number and to call him back after they have found out the answer from a supervisor or publication. V
“I think the accuracy rate is higher than reported, especially when the question is not a terribly complicated one. The IRS telephone information officers are all college graduates who have gone through extensive training in tax law,” Mr. Saubert says.
‘Taxpayers who receive incorrect information from the IRS are liable only for any additional taxes they might owe; they are not assessed a penalty,” he added.
Asking the person who answers the IRS telephone to mail a publication on a specific topic is another way to assure accuracy. The IRS has recently published three large voljmes explaining the current tax iaws, and they will send relevant sections of these publications to anyone with a tax question. “If, after receiving a publication, the taxpayer still has questions, he or she can call back for clarification of a particular passage,” Mr. Saubert says.
Highly publicized changes in the tax law coupled with the fear of calling for information “are driving many individuals to professional tax preparers,” he notes. Yet, he says,
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