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As a final means of facilitating the growth and quality improvement of volunteer tax counseling programs, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service should support S. 2868, the "Older Americans Tax Counseling Assistance Act" and seek necessary appropriations. This legislation would permit the Internal Revenue Service to strengthen its training and technical assistance program a condition necessarily precedent to the recruiting of additional numbers of volunteer counselors, all of whom must be trained. This legislation would also permit the Internal Revenue Service to reimburse the volunteer tax consultants with respect to their out-of-pocket expenses incurred during training and service. Finally, the bill would authorize Internal Revenue Service to conduct special alerts to help assure that the aged taxpayer is fully aware of important tax relief measures intended for his

benefit.

The enactment of S. 2868 or similar legislation would accelerate the expansion of tax preparation counseling programs for the aged to their optimum service potential by eliminating existing financial restraints. At the present time, the size of the Tax-Aide program

is subject to the budgetary limitations of the sponsoring organizations, the National Retired Teachers Association and the American would Association of Retired Persons. Not only the infusion of federal funds provide the additional numbers of I.R.S. training personnel who would have to be provided if more volunteer tax counselors are to be trained, but this infusion would also, by reimbursing for meals and travel, open up the tax counseling programs to many more S. 2868, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. (1974).

potential volunteers, specifically those reitrees who, although highly motivated, must consider such incidental cost consequences as expenses for meals and travel. Finally, the availability of federal funds would free some of the private funds of the sponsoring organizations for certain program quality improvements for example, employment of a cadre of experts to assist the ordinary volunteer counselors.

as,

The aged taxpayer category is a minority taxpayer group of approximately 8.7 million persons, more than 50 percent of whom

are lower-income.

While the aged taxpayer has less dollars of

income than the non-aged, he is far more likely to find each dollar of income he does have more difficult and expensive to report and assess for tax purposes. Since the complexity of the tax laws

which govern the forms of income relatively unique to the aged taxpayer and which limit the availability of tax preferences intended for his benefit, substantially impedes his ability to comply voluntarily with the requirements of the law and since relief by means of tax simplification remains unlikely, compensating steps must be taken and tax counseling assistance provided without charge to facilitate the aged taxpayer's voluntary compliance and restrain his tendency toward overcompliance.

Specifically, the Department of the Treasury should persevere in its efforts to develop means by which payors of pensions and annuities can more readily inform the payee of the taxable portion of the gross annual payment. The Internal Revenue Service should determine or redetermine the feasibility of developing a "senior short form" designed specifically for the aged taxpayer reporting relatively standard types of income and claiming relatively standard tax benefits. Elimination, with respect to the aged taxpayer, of the requirements for filing a declaration of estimated tax should

be considered.

The publication of tax return preparation materials designed for the aged taxpayer and the distribution of these materials without charge must be continued. Efforts to inform the aged taxpayer via the electronic and printed media of existing statutory filing requirements, of special tax preferences intended for his benefit, and of the means of, and the location for obtaining free advice and counsel on general or specific tax problems should be augmented. Finally, the expansion of tax preparation assistance counseling programs designed specifically for and aimed specifically at the aged taxpayer category should be stimulated.

That commercial tax-preparers such as H & R Block and noncommercial volunteer tax preparation assistance programs such as Tax-Aide have flourished, especially during the last four years, constitutes substantial evidence of the failure of the I.R.S. taxpayer representative service program to accommodate satisfactorily the unique needs of the aged taxpayer. Since the aged taxpayer is a low-income person, the most significant contribution which the Internal Revenue Service could render in ameliorating his tax preparation problems would be to facilitate the development and expansion of volunteer tax counseling programs. This could be done by expanding the number of I.R.S. training offices available for counseling volunteers, producing training materials designed specifically for the volunteer who is to deal with the aged taxpayer, making such training materials available well in advance of the tax return preparation season, committing the I.R.S. field

agents in charge of V.I.T.A./Tax-Aide to that program on a fulltime basis, maintaining continuous and close liaison with program coordinators and volunteer counselors, supporting the enactment of legislation similar to the "Older Americans Tax Counseling Assistance Act," and seeking adequate appropriations to facilitate the implementation of these measures.