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Hello and welcome to the American University. My name is caroline and i am a tax professor and managing direct center here in the school of business. I wanted to take a quick moment to introduce you to the tax li that dont know as we are a nonpartisan Research Center housed in the school of business and we put out research on issues ranging from Small Business literacy and education to Tax Compliance challenges the independto capital challenges of Business Owners and importantly for today, Tax Administration c challenges. More broadly, we are experts on aia analytics and Digital Transformations and we build this expertise into the research and curriculum for example the Research Center earlier this year together with ibm center of the business of Government Produced research on how tax agencies can effectively adopt and deploy aai. The research reflects opportunities and challenges for those using ai and we were able to draw on comments from the commissioner, other irs folks into tax agency administrations from around the world to talk about how aia has the■ improven and outreach, how ai can facilitate the compliance enforcement activities and how it needs to be rolledigation strategies and government structures. What we are here to talk about is the irs Digital Transformation plan which will be introduced by the irs commissioner who is marking his one Year Anniversary with the irs this presenting a presentation for 20 minutes and then be in conversation with our very own david. They Work Together about the 2020 president ial transition so it will be great to hear them recap and shed some light so thank you so much for joining us. [applause] one Year Anniversary as commissioner it is an honor to university. The irs is an agency that affects all americans and a university is a fitting place to talk about the future irs because you are at the start of a journey where you will be filing your taxes with of the irs for many, many years to come. In the fall of 2022, i take a phone call from the bite administration asking if i would be able to serve as irs commissioner. Once i could get my jaw off the floor it was a great honor. My firste and treasury departmet leadership what are you hoping i or any irs commissioner would achieve in this role at this time . The answer they gave me encapsulates the once in a generation opportunity. They told me the next commissioner will lead the irs through the most importantagenc. So again it might draw it dropped to the floor and i will be honest with you part of me suspected of hyperbole. Something of a sales pitch to get my hat in the ring for the job. This was no exaggeration. What you have come to do it digitally on your phone and tablet without paper wherever you are in the world the modernization of the irs is a generational imperative. Everincreasing Digital World is just part of the imperative. Our race to catch up with the modern economy three critical results. To ensurey■p makes Administration Work better. Those who seek to inappropriately exploit the tax system. And third and unlocks our ability to restore trust and fairness in the irs and the taxes. So lets dive in and explore where the work being done to transform the irs is so right on in beneficial our family and our community. I will tell you a today and whee the momentum can take us. I remember the moment i realized that was not the type or in exaggeration. Our morning staff meeting last fall. The night before id been at the service for america award at the kennedy center, the oscars for government i was excited i challenge the irs team to win on his big awards nt year. E for anf an award winner i immediately shared with them my Favorite Award from the night before. Eams who sent a rocket into space both light and 7 million bales away going 4000. These nasa scientists hit the asteroid dead center not only did they hit a bullseye, it changed its trajectory. For the first time nasa scientists and engineers proved if an asteroid were ever headed for earth they could deflect it and save humanity. My team looked at me sheepishly and said commissioner that is going to be tough to beat. Teamd in and said but where did nasa get the money for the rocket . It is collected by the irs. That is the moment i fully appreciated how important the irs is and how monumental this task and opportunity is. It is not just ensuring we have the funds of nasa scientists to save the planet from an asterois the funds to keep our food safe our skies safe our roads safe. If we are essential to finding so many of the things that make life in america possible i am one burning question. Why . Why did Homer Simpson not like us . Theyre supposed to be a video here. Lets see if it pops on. I dont think were going have the video. In that video probably pop on one telling the story. Homer drives i■g tne telling the story. Homer drives oh boo your self. So what does Homer Simpson not like us . Maybe he thanks hes paying too thanks his taxes are far too complicated. Its osi control we do not set the tax rate to write the tax code. But if homer and other taxpaying americans answering the phone, we are taking too long to send a refund or otherwise increase stress and frustration as they navigate their tax responsibility rather than decreasing it that we can and should turn things around. We have a large mountain to climb. These are snapshots of the irs just a few years ago. Hallways and cafeterias. Shuttered Tax Assistance Center so people cannot get help. So i suppose i could understand we may be booed by Homer Simpson or other cartoon americans are being frustred■n with the irs. How do we get to this point . When the rest of the world had moved beyond paper deteriorating customer service, anemic audit rates stagnant technology, it was the result of twoover the l. The first trend the irs had been underfunded for far too long. From 2010 until 2020 when the irs budget was slashed by more during this decade of budget cuts the population grew and ana returns increase by more than 15 million along with countless changes to the tax laws increasingly complicated financial environments, globalization, additional currencies, exponen and other fs that increase the size and complexity of the american taxs. As our budget declined butter plate of responsibilities grew irs employees work through it. Long hours and sweat equity would often get the job done because Innovative Technologies were not available. Enter the pandemic. The iris workforce including running the tax system and successfully getting emergency payments to hundreds of millions of americans on Small Businesses across the country. But eventuallyhe out. Coming out of the pandemic we are so varied understaffed and hobbled by stagnant we literally could no longer answer the phones or keep our walkin centers open. Te reduction act in 2022. Finally we had new funding to build the irs back to par performance but builds it for the future. Even though this new law provides a 10 year runway for the irs to rebuild, it has been clear since day one that we needed to show results immediately. Funds from the new law will allow us to dig out of a deep hole. Get back to Better Service standards and laid the lay the n for the transformation to come. Catalyzing a new era for the irs. Hallways and cafeterias has ended. Phone center is back all the walkin centers are open fully staffed and expanding around the country and we have new tools on irs. Gov and if suit record traffic to the site. We have much more Digital Tools of the last twoea launch the la. Sometimes it is the Little Things this we get a call back option texture is required to stay on hold to lisn to elevator music. When you are funded you can make these types of improvements. The past. Urra now we have an opportunity to move beyond just base a performance and build a 21st century tax agency to serve the American People in a manner they expect and the level they deserve. Our vision for the irs is truly effective in easing the stress caused by our complex tax laws. Simpler forms, more intuitive processes when a staff trained drug empathy, understanding who have the tools obligations easiy and fairly. But let me make it even more real for you. Myar their 80s have never use an atm. They go to bank come talk to a cash. My children on the other hand are in their 20s have never set foot in a bank appeared to open an account cash. Think about how you interact with your bank. When you buy something with a debit card, that transaction account before you even leave the store. When your bank is concerned about fraud it will text you and let you sort it out equally from your smart phone. When the irs may be fraud with your account we send you a letter. We are working to change that. ■ trap form to be ready for the new digital economy. With historic funding through the new law building irs were all taxpayers can be all of their responsibilities including all interaction with the irs. No questions, payments and a completely digital manner that they choose. Most taxpayers want to interact with us the 21st century. Transformation is also the keystone that helps unlock the True Potential of the irs. Heres how. When financial and travel companies moved everything online which accelerated during covid the number o people calling drop precipitously. As did the number of people strapped tocklocations. Our vision is not only were you can deliver for taxpayers online it is one or we redeploy capacity and absolute still need our employees who will now have the time and tools to focus on helping people who need it most increasing scrutiny on bad actors and purposeful tax evaders. In terms of unlng people that nr help the most, less time on phones means more time means our employees can spend more time engaging in commu■ynities■ supporting walk insights and mama and volunteer tax clinics that assist low income filers helping taxpayers who cannot affordt to get it right the first time. processing paper returns employees can spend more time helping every taxpayer regardless of income claim credit for like the earned income tax credit which is an economic lifeline for so man never claim the credit. Do more to help them. Digital irs does not mean we are walking away from service. It means we can do more to help the people who needed the most. Digital transformation to unlock new capacity is already begun. For example we made significant upgrades to wheres my refund tool. Also this Filing Season we launched direct file a system of taxpayers file tax returns online directly with the irs for free. Direct file is almost tailormade for students its a simple tax situation. Check it out go to direct file. Irs. Gov to see if you example of whats coming in the near future. A clear way to communicate with the irs and protects taxpayers. We will have a screen on your online account like this letting you know if the irs is trying to contact you. Why is this important . We have too many bad actors calling and texting, pretending to be the irs tricking americas are pulling out their credit card and paying them a fake tax debt. In the future if you get such a call or text you will just teach about your online account. If it shows a green banner like this actual irs is not trying to reach you. Hang up, ignore the text and if you are willing to report this to us online so we can investigate it. You can seat right there at the Digital Transformation frees up capacity to better crackdown. It also unlocks capacity for the irs for scrutiny evade the tax responsibility. Most significantly cuts down on basic mistakes and errors freeing up our employees to focus on the more complex■j issues. Noncompliance overwhelmingly occur among our highest wealth and largest taxpayers. Many wealthy and large taxpayers are doing the right thing to many are using complexities. Too inappropriately shield their less resources dedicated to sorting paper returns means more resources such a this complexity and find hidden income. In fact we are already using use of the largest in the world for hiding income behind complexity that se ai helps with the precision partnerships playing by the rules and doing the right thing. Using the new ai models audits on 76 hyatt risk complex partnerships including hedge funds and publicly traded partnerships. Capacity to broaden our reach scrutinize a lot more high risk complex filers that we previously could. At to focus our enforcement efforts on the high income groups that for too long have fallen under the radar. With new funding weve already served notices to 125,000 high income taxpayers who fail to file a federal income tax return since 2017. Including 25000 people with incomes over 1 million. These nonviolence represent more than 100 billion in financial activity. We are cracking down on 1600 millionaires and billionaires we will not allow higher incomevidh their basic civic duty of filing a tax return and paying with ao. A more digital irs unlocks our ability to audit inappropriate writeoffs for personal use of corporate assets■ such as corporate jets. In my first year here the irs team has already collected nearly 500 million millionaires and billionaires to ensure fairness in our tax system. And we are just getting started. So, this is how our digital platform for taxpayers will unlock our employees capacity to help people in need and to needed most. Utiny where i perhaps most critical is new funding inner transformation to unlock our ability to ensure they are desperate for everyone who plays by the rules and helps restore trust in the system. No issue is more important tha fairness. Just over a year ago, in fact in the days leading up to my Senate Confirmation hearing, researchers at several universities and the u. S. Treasury published a study that black taxpayers three times more likely to be audited than other taxpayers. Our processes were impacts on black taxpayers. Not only committed to fixing this top priority confirmed but i became more motivated to become the irsioner. I wanted to fix this. Any indication of racial bias in our work is unacceptable. Met ws team setting the issue. Too quickly evaluate the extent to which art■ahe processes in the data we rely contributed to the spit disparity paid since ive been comm yissioner ive been meeting with communities that were impacted, hearing their concerns, sharing our regrets and outlining the actions we are taking on substantially reducing the number of audits or they were identified. Our algorithms specifically intended to address the disparities. We are now ready to invest new urces to help identify any disparities age, gender and geography. We are using that research to continuously refine our approaches across compliance efforts. Were trying to rebuild trust for overhauling appliance and hold ourselves accountable for the taxpayers we for one or 50 years dating back to president lincoln but more recently the irs has evolved. Tax laws are increasingly playing a larger role in addressing the most pressing challenges of our t irs employees are hard at work on programs to cut child poverty. Programs to expand Healthcare Access until age 26 the Affordable Care act. As to the irs and taxes. To address the threat of Climate Change because the hundreds of billions of dollars tax credits. With defendant we can support policies to improve the lives of all americans. To meet this critical moment in tax collection and beyond. But to succeed and truly build building irs for the 21st we need to count lawyers and finance experts. We also need data scientists, engineers, experts and ai in ou are studying your expertise and most importantly your passion for change in service. The summer of 1963 john f. Kennedy came here to Americans University commencement where he called for the First Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the soviet union. It was the start of a historic effort that led to greater stability and peace in the world. President kennedy enjoyed president. I pass a photo of his speech in our building every day. President kennedy told graes in 1963 no problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Mans reason and spirit the seemingly unsolvable. We believe we can do it again. Thankfully Tax Administration is a far cry from nuclear diplomacy. The decisions the action of t ty american directly and indirectly. Those are in this effort to soe long been unsolvable. To undertake the most transformation of a governm his. Catalyzed by historic funding, guided we can transform the irs for the 21st century. Can meet taxpayers where they are paid support them to meet their obligations and make Tax Administration work2eetter. To try to exploit the tax system. Restore trust and increase etter serve the country and you, our taxpayers in the years and decades to come. [applause] clicks my irs stress ball they are handing out over their i need one of them. Eam for putting this event together. Theyre working over the weekend let me say thats extraordinary speech. I have been for 33 years. Ive never seen a Government Official give a speech like that. Its usually looking at a net wood podium through notes with eight part plan and subparts. It was a metaphor for what youre trying to do is open up the irs, bej transformational i got the compliment you on that. Thank you. Quickly talk about your person ive known you for a while peeking at our career at the boston con running a big practice in making a lot of money. One of the hardest jobs in government. Why did you do that . It is a passion and a calling for Public Service. At the of the acting irs commsioner very challenging moment. The first few days is doing meet and greets with senators and senators andmembers of congress. I met with senator john mccain. They were news and protests outside of the irs building. Senator mccains that you must be someone who likes to run toward the gunfire. And i thought i aspire to be that. In my that person . That such a big heavy complement to receive such a motivating thing to say and i reflected a lot. Especially from senator mccain. For me a sudden inspiration to be that type of person. From that moment forward i dont know if i am but i want toed foo do something hard and challenging but important i want to be the person senator mccain suggested i could be. This is an old ambitious audacious plan but how much is it going to cost . We have roughly 60 billion under the inflation reduction been over 10 years. It is a big Monumental Task with all the modernization that is required to achieve this we are making progress as i said paid we have momentum. But this visionthe nation can je and get everything done. H theres a lot of data that needs to be clean, Technology Needs cleaned up, processes that need to be engineered behind the scenes the irs or technology isc old. Its on old language. It is not cloud enabled. We have a lot of investments to do the types of things i taxpayers where they are. We need people on the ground in communities and we need more accountants to help us with the number of high income filers out there who are invadingheir taxes is more they could handle and scrutinize today. He of technology and ai to help you be more efficient. Youre going to spend the 60 billion for it how much you think youre going to recover in the billiondollar and create an easier way to do your taxes. Get things done and less times protect you from scams. But the work we do to recover from noncompliant generally runs about a six one ratio for every 1 dollar invested. Enormo. You into a centering use at you, you have a lot in your plates. The reality is and whats very important to me i think its on the irs without the workforce. 90000 people . 90000 people have the unique opportunity to paint a vision of much more digital set of solutions. We are still hiring as i said y remarks one of the biggest surprises that i had a pleasant surprise is this workforce is ready for change. They are passionate about building the, gaining tools, taking on new training and new responsibilities to do more to serve taxpayers. That is inspiring to me was passion about better serving taxpayers. Cookson you are successful in achieving your goals the agency will be much more digital and efficient. Does that mean you need fewer employees if im employee of the irs should not be worried about my job . You should not be worried about your job. All taxpayers can do all ofust■4 their interactions with the irs digitally if they choose. The next part of that division is what is that a lot . But locks new capacity over time to be red to do other things differently. Around the cw income eligible for the earned income tax credit but dont apply for. We need workforce working within the community. Not all of these have access to computers and to go you can meet them where they are. Lester was served with us and called popee go to one thats not close to existing elite set up shop and work up with low income taxpayers. But you say it we could reach all of those areas, there are so many more areas with underserved taxpayers that we need to reach. To the size and complexity of■ the tax system and our taxpayers. Again we are not going to be the workforce and they capacity it would bring. Will start the tax evaders who said their 25000 o over a Million Dollars in taxes. Who are these people who think they can get away with it plus willtechnology enable them to br find them and make sure they pay their fair share . Of the hundred 25000 taxpayers out there. 25000 in more than a million. Since 2017. We finally now have heres the thing about have the funds. You dont have the funding is not the letter thats expensive its the followup. If we send a letter no followup none of our letters will have. We have to wait until we have the capacity to rehire all of the people to hire up to the white staffing now we can reach about these non filers. Technology the increasing our enforcement of high wealth and large taxpayers. Including high wealth and tax payers and here is why. We invest in these capacities and get smarter and more precise the ai data science and subject matter expertise is tech the right cases for audit if you do the right thing we wont have to reach you. You will have the expense of the irs audit. You will know that oths in your market your competitors will be held accountable to the right thing. The due scrutiny on these complex situations actually benefits the complex filers sucked in a high income lets talk about low inc filers. You were nice enough to do a roundtable with some students and professor classes professor bruckner classes they go out in the community and help low income americans file taxes. One of the things that one of the students says the level of trust on the irs is extremely low. Some of the clients command including some that are not cu envelope and will not open it because they do not trust the irs. So what is behind that and what are you doing to improve the level of trust . That is why its an essential theme that we have to trust. We have to raise our game of how we are communicating with taxpayers. We have to relocate our forms, our engagement strategies so they are including more empathy. We need to do more partnerships that help us demystify the irs. Im explain in many cases were reaching o to them to make sure they understand what benefits and credits they may be eligible for. Part of it is announcing an order to route north is at the irs. I am announcing it indicating our true north is to help low ao the irs for help. To get the credits they deserve so that we can help protect them from these scams because low income and vulnerable populations tend to be more subject and they tend to be exploited more often. So it starts with setting the ambition. Communicating and obvious have to walk the walk and back that t out into the community. We do these pop up walk and centers. We do things like this past ekend enforcing taxpayer experiences will be open our doors and focus on training and working with low income communities. But our partners are critical. Local Community Leaders and others can help demystify that the irs and you are at risk. What we want to do for underserved populations this idea the irs is here to help them provide support for access and to make sure and credits that will help. You mentioned your parents or their 80s and my dad turns 90 today. Let me tell you what happens with him. He files his taxes and he may call the irs every day. We are familiar with that profile. I have your cell phone i can give him . [laughter] how should Digital Transformation strategy help someone like my dad . First of all we already have tools online like where is my refund, that we are continuing to invest. Like for example we created this filing a virtual chat function we are texting back and for in some cases and other cases theit quick, easy, from their smart phone access to us so they can ha the idea around this individual account that has everything you could possibly need is that there is one stop shop. May beat your 90yearold dad does not feel as comfortable online but u. S. His son or grandkids can work with him to set up the online account and say grandpa if you get a phone call from someone claiming to be the irs and by the way theseimp. Specifically on the elderly. Theyve studied different scripts they can used to trick e elderly into pulling up their credit card. What we need to do is get the word out and have Public Service announcements increasingly about how the irs website can be the source of truth to determine whether the first about we really ever call you. And wh rare we dont threaten with this Immediate Tax penalty. We do not make promises we dnot. We are still sharing with irs and other agencies that could risk dortation. Is just not in the cards if something is going to happen with the irs that is significant is going to play out over many, many interactions. And again we very rarely call you. We need to get the word out increasingly through Public Service announcements. Through partners, through events like this to set the reality of what we are trying to get what we do on a daytoday basis. Is go to the other end of the my daughters 22 she felt her taxes for the first time last year end i helped her. It was challenging because is not that easy. If filing and she has a refund how much faster will she get a■o refund if she files electronically and gets her Bank Account Information versus what i do which is send in a piece of paper . At the irs we strongly encourage electronic filing. We strongly encourage you to select direct deposit for a track record right now as we get refunds to people and under 21 days if you file electronically and choose direct deposit just to clarify what we are trying to do with the irs is building this digitally relevant platform for your children and their children and so on. As to give them option. So right now and over the past several years the way you file ec and for free has both the commercial software provider. This year as i mentioned were piloting 12 states an option on the menu to file direct for free. You will get your refund if youre owed one allison 21 days. We did not do it onically how much longer . And plus you are adding to the work load to manage all that paper. That means were not helping the people who need help the most. The more we get rid of paper the more we drive people to our website and build a website that can do all these things you can do with your favorite online bank. The more our people can focus on helping veterans dire straits each year she comes out with apt night report. Who been victims and takes way too long. If you are a victim of Identity Theft you can get resolution from the irs to get everything sorted quickly. When i say a fully digital irs unlocks our full potential means to fully digital irs unlocks potential speedily theyre not losing sleep anymore we are solving these problems more quickly. There are still problems to solve and that is why our employees are so critical. We have a table outside. We are hing and working with our employees on making their journey at the irs as fruitful and rewarding as possible too. Encourage ask a couple more questions on the will take questions from students as well. You are recruited you mentioned you were recruiting not just folks who are accountants but digital transportation experts, it experts, lawyers. Why should someone want to work at the irs . Why is it an attractive place for students to work . Its one word, impact. We touch every household in america. Every business. The decisions that we make Significant Impact we have a big plate of responsibility to make the attack system work better for the American People i mention thiseral decades the tax laws have been increasingly leveraged to drive critically important policy issues some of the most important of our generation income and equality things like childhood poverty, health care access, Climate Change. All of those things are now implemented substantially through the tax system. Its people at the irs hard at work implementing the Energy Tax Credit under the Inflation Reduction Act. Many scholars and experts around the worlddits that are implemented may be the most powerful legislative mechanism ever to drive industries to go green and who is responsible for implementing legislation . It is a lot of pressure it is rewarding. If you are sitting in class or thinking about your career and you want to help americans with this fundamental civic responsibility, we have a lot of work for you. If you are interested in working to implement tax laws that are driving things like helping low income, increasing health care access, addressing the Climate Change, we have work for you. I think that is a powerful message for those interested in Public Service. There are some students coming or going for classes, that is normal here. My last question is lets assume you are successful and, as you have been pretty much everything you have done, how will the irs look differently and for five years and it does today . I want to state that one of my philosophies of leadership is to recognize i have not alws been successful. I have had failures and setbacks and triumphs. What i always try to do what i take one step back in two steps forward. What i havn this job is bring to the table experience not only my experience but experience from across■v industries and governmt agencies. What are the preconditions for success . One of the preconditions for failure . Lets build a strategy to maximize probability of success and minimizes probability of failure. I look back on my failures and draw inspiration. With the irs will look like is essentially what it will look like is a very high functioning website digital platform whatever you need to get done in the basics making a payment, understanding what toyota . What is my current status . I need a transcript and want to know it happened a couple years ago i need m■ a pulpy historic record. All of it is at your fingertips. But then as a robust workforce we are building today still sced in two places were helping people but cannot afford to hire an accountant or a that are struggling to navigate a very complicated tax laws and we are there to meet them where they are and provide them world Class Customer service. Not just digitally but in person and walking through■3 is increasingly effective■e finding where people are shielding large corporations creating equity and our enforcement. That is what the Inflation Reduction Act is intended to buy and as i mentioned we are making momentum. We have a lot of work to do. But we are off to a great start. Lets open it up to a couple of students. How much time do we have are we who is after the first question. We have some microphones identify yourself. Hi i am cameron johnson. Im a sophomore here at au and i am hopefully going to in my school and map masters degree in Forensic Accounting i very might well be working here at the irs. I had a prepared question but as you are speaking i came up with a better one. You really touched on the point of radical positivity. Just optimism kind of has a tricky way of clouding what is going on. But radical positivity m direct things to stay positive as we are talking about the American Public perception of the irs. Sue asked as young people with the outlook toward the irs and towards government enter generation how do we push forward was proposed here during this talk . Thank you. It is such a good question. I start with myth busting. To understand what is at stake. The types of programs the irs is running. Its intended to help people. Not just about taxction but also to the extent you are worried and stressed an anxiety what you think you may owe. It is creating an environment where people increasingly see the irs as a source of help and a mechanism to potentially reduce stress b■g■ecause we cant your answer quickly. We have lots of investments we need to make we have to have the right number of peoplhelp. We have to make and create partnerships. We have a very Important Program volunteer tax clinics around the country. It is so inspiring. These are people who volunteer their time to help low income op taxes. It reduces her stress and anxiety begets them access to benefits. There is so much more that we can do to grow and strengthen our volunteer program run the country. I think as people see us out in the communities working to help low income, to hel targeted by these types of scans and schemes. And start to see this ambition we are communicating. We are putting resources behind equity behind it. It starts at home. It starts with our employees motivating them, having them understand what the mission is and what the ambition that we are taking. It also partners. We talk a lot directly to taxpayers. As the critical local groups that get involved through these volunteer tax clinics, the local groups involved with our local taxpayer experience. Ike the united way. Those are the types of efforts that may not make it to the front page of theer or the headlines. My sense is we went on the local level not the national level. That requires us to change the way we are communicating and engaging. We will continue to do so. National speeches and things like that but i also plan as commissioner increasingly out into local communities. I want our Leadership Team and staff to do that. I think that is the ground game that is needed people think, understand, and pursue the irs. Next question . Yes in the back. Maybe just introduce yourself. Nice presentation. I am a student hear from uganda. With the authority. Im glad to hear some of the the thingsyouve talked about ensuring you not think of Tax Administration as a way of enforcingnq rules because we hae a lot like a boat here. Over the weekend book to an International Student like me. For International Students and others people talk some told is for citizens it is for us national students. It was very fun thank you. Thank you for the question. This is part of this expansion we have to do to make sure we are meeting taxpayers where they are. Some taxpayers are u. S. Citizens and cities. Somewhere in rural locations. Some are i with homes overseas but they are here, they are working and earng they have a tax responsibility each of those unique situations can create unique products or to provide. And unfortunately if we are not comprehensive certain taxpayer groups will fall through the crooks. Will sank onto your menu, theres something on here that deans mining. Im really glad you asked the question. Mentioned a few times to have this new pilot with this direct file solution you can file electronically with the irs. Right now we are in 12 states. One of the number one questions i get is when are you coming to my state . The other thing is am i eligible . What i want to make sure were doing is looking across different taxpayer groups and making sure no taxpayers are slipping through the crooks. That need this type of solution and digital experience. Ill take that question back makethere is a community of taxpayers out there that may not be u. S. Citizens for they may be here but have a tenth tax responsibility. What area1 ourls that . He has come over here. My name is harrison i am a grad student in school of Public Affairs and political science. My question is to you, the irs seems to have a branding marketing issue. I know y guys arep with the tax, you just enforce it. How do you see yourselves getting around that . My education. One of my favorite stories i told my students was one of the worst days of my life was when i as really excited to get it and then half of it was gone because of the irs. I realize i have to pay very fi. Just going through that. And i understand what this taxes go toward now but 12 years removed from that experience as a teenager getting the first paycheck but when you are a teenager you dont realize that. Its like that money is gone forever and never going to get it back. Quickly still feel like that. Emotionally, yes, i do but logically i understand that monies going somewhere. And congress is never going to come out like we took that money we told the irs you have to go get it so how do you deal that branding issue as the guy in charge of the irs . [laughter] boxes show the video of homer because i recognize that we are a chronically unpopular across. A part of that is okay and heres what i mean by that. One of the analogies i thought about in terms of the irs is that we are kind of like an nfl2 referee. We get a call wrong 80000 people will boo us. You get the call people will boo us. If we call show on instant replay the big up a call right, 80000 people will boo us and that is okay. That is part of it. But without the referee theres no game, it is chaos. At the end of the super bowl known as planning a parade for the referees and that is okay too. The referees can go home atd[ night knowing they are a critical part of what made this special event happen on the thing that entertains millions of americans each and they should be proud. And we should be proud of what we do. The branding is not necessarily about popularity. The branding is more about what we are trying to achieve and what we are working hard to do. I do think and i think the irs can certainly help, there needs to be a broader messaging and civics classes and across the u. S. About the positive impacts of the government can have. When you woke up this morning the government touched you positively five times before breakfast. We have etched in the irs headquarters outside a quote from justin for Oliver Wendell holmes taxes are what we pay for civilized society. I mention safe roads, safe skies, safe food. I think about the facts but im getting on an looked down the aisle and see my kids strapping themselves in. I see my wife. I think about thet air Traffic Controllers are busy making sure florida, california or wherever we are going. I think about all of the inspections they have gone through. All of the Safety Standards that have made air travel and the in the u. S. And internationally. And for me i think taxes are worth it for the road system we ha and transportation or the fact i got to dinner tonight i dont have to worry about toxins in the food or getting sick. Thats what you get from your taxes. And that is in education we owe it too be more thankful think about more impact fully. I celebrate people like svice for america words at the partnership for Public Service. They are celebrating these teams from nasa that are taking steps to save humanity. And i also want to make a comment the president of ntu our we have both unionized and non unionized workers. They are all coming to work every day to try to make a difference and make the whole system work better. I think they are part ofall frod who is helping his mom with an ■virs issue. His mom was failing it was not as good as she once was. He had to go get something and he held her online with the irs representative. When he got back the rs represent was reminding him of things he promises mom five minutes earlier to dupree pray dont get this a lot bikes want to tell you how wonderful this woman was and how much she help my mom and me through the stressful situation. Thats actually thats what i hear more than a here but irs intimidation. That is what i am proud of them we have to get that message and people like doreen are fighting every day to make sure the image of the Government Employee is warranted and about what it meant and but the paper was piling up. You cant shut down the irs operations for too long without having significa critical issues, so our employees came back in, masked, social distance, they had to dor in a much different environment and importantly and this is where i come back to impact when needed to distribute emergency payments to americans in Small Business across the country to keepur economy afloat so that people could keep food on the table and really create an economic lifeline, it was the irs that did it and why . Because the irs has the infrastructure because we touch every household. We were the logical choice to do all the organization and logistics that was necessary to make sure that every american got their emergency payment. Rest. No one will throw the parade for us and thats okay but i really do think its important that the stories are told maybe in ucation like American University but also in High School Civics and what impact they have. Thank you for coming to cogad for laying out our vision and most importantly thankou your service to our country. Thank you, thank you all. [applause]ittee hearing is justr

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