Ethics: IRS Behavioral Insights for Accountants

Overview

This course provides a concise overview of how the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) thinks. The session reviews how the agency uses behavioral insights – the study of how people reflect and behave – to drive compliance, positively impact taxpayer engagement, and reduce taxpayer burden. While the IRS is governed by federal tax law, it’s also shaped by social norms. As part of their mission to collect taxes and administer the Internal Revenue Code, the agency utilizes human psychology to achieve their goals. These activities include public identity (using the IRS logo, seal, and symbol), voluntary compliance (using public shaming and the “Wesley Snipes” effect), trust building (using a Taxpayer Bill of Rights), and error reductions (using alerts and reminders to nudge behaviors). The session reveals how to “get into the head” of the agency and better understand the key psychological factors (individual, environmental, social) that drive leading IRS operations and decisions. The course also spotlights the leading issues and pain-points that are currently “top of mind” for the agency and how practitioners can be more mindful in their interactions with the IRS to improve outcomes. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Highlights

Behavioral insights (BI) Primer
How and why BI are used by the IRS
IRS and individual decision-making
IRS and environmental and design considerations
IRS and social norms
IRS "top of mind" issues
BI and Implementation of tax reform legislation
BI and private debt collection
BI and online taxpayer accounts
BI and taxpayer rights in "real" vs. "unreal" audits
BI and the tax-exempt approval process
BI and passport renewal and revocation
How to use BI to more mindfully interact with the IRS to improve outcomes

Prerequisites

None

Designed For

Practitioners who want to better understand how behavioral insights impact IRS operations and how this cognitive concept can be used by accountants to improve their interactions with the agency.

Objectives

Highlight the corporate cognitive-culture and psychological foundations of IRS processes, policies, information products and rulings
Explore IRS communication dynamics with taxpayers and tax professionals
Use an “IRS lens” to more rationally and pragmatically interact with the agency