TAS SA plays a vital role in identifying, analyzing, and resolving broad-based taxpayer problems. Collaborative Teams are created due to interest in addressing current issues affecting taxpayers. Teams may have members that include IRS employees from various Business Operating Divisions (BOD).

SA employees that are part of a collaborative team track the team’s progress, research, ideas shared and outcome in the Collaborative Teams database in SharePoint Online™ (SPO) or in the Systemic Advocacy Management Systems (SAMS) database. From SPO, a quarterly report of all open teams’ and their progress is created and shared with the EDSA and the Deputy Executive Directors Systemic Advocacy (DEDSAs). A similar report is distributed monthly to SA Leadership showing all open Advocacy Projects (AP), Immediate Interventions (II), Information Gathering Projects (IGPs), and Task Forces on SAMS utilizing Business Objects Enterprise (BOE).

IRC § 7803(c) established the Office of the National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) to assist taxpayers with resolving problems with the IRS, identify areas in which taxpayers have problems dealing with the IRS, propose changes in the administrative practices of IRS and to identify potential legislative changes to mitigate problems.

The EDSA reports directly to the NTA. The EDSA has oversight responsibility for SA and the NTA's Annual Reports to Congress. Two divisions, Proactive Advocacy and Technical Advocacy, report to the EDSA. The Deputy Executive Director, Systemic Advocacy, Proactive Advocacy (DEDSA-PA) and the Deputy Executive Director, Systemic Advocacy, Technical Advocacy (DEDSA-TA), are responsible for identifying and raising awareness of systemic issues impacting taxpayers.

The EDSA oversees the participation of SA employees in Collaborative Teams and the tracking of the efforts.

The Collaborative Team Lead is responsible for actively participating in the team, , ensuring meeting minutes are captured and any progress or outcome is documented in SPO or SAMS database along with any pertinent documents being uploaded.

Program Reports: Each team’s progress is documented monthly or quarterly in SPO as well as the uploading of applicable team documents. The purpose of the storage of this data is to track the team’s objectives, shared ideas, research, barriers and the accomplishments.

Program Effectiveness: Reports are generated from SPO quarterly and shared with the EDSA and DEDSA-PA and DEDSA-TA to show each team’s progress.

Permissions to the SPO site and SAMS are limited to SA employees and a few selected personnel within TAS. Permissions may or may not be granted when a request is made through SPO or SAMS. Permission is allowed if the requester has a reason to have access to either site/database.

Frequently Used Terms:

Acronyms:

The use of additional abbreviations and acronyms are located in IRM 13 2.1. See Exhibit 13.2.1-1, Terms, Definitions and Acronyms, for commonly used TAS terms and abbreviations.

Resource and SA program information are available and provided in IRM 13.2.1, Systemic Advocacy Overview.

Collaborative and Cross Functional Team: The genesis of a collaborative effort is TAS and a function of the IRS agreeing to work together as equal partners on an issue, process, and/or policy that affects each organization. These teams tend to be ongoing.

IRS Task Force: This is a cross-functional group that works together to achieve a very specific and clearly defined objective. The group is usually comprised of representatives from several operating divisions, with one function sponsoring or leading the effort. In these situations, TAS is part of a larger team. Therefore, TAS may have less direct influence on the outcome than in a collaborative effort because members of the group may vote/decide to take actions that TAS does not favor.

TAS Issue Tracking Task Force: An issue task force is set up on SAMS to associate similar SAMS issues that TAS has decided to track. The purpose of this type of task force is to associate and catalog issues. The task force owner/lead will periodically evaluate whether to initiate a more formal advocacy effort on the topic. An example of an Issue Task Force is Taxpayer Assistance Center Service problems. Generally, task forces should be reviewed to determine if closure is appropriate at the end of the applicable fiscal year.

TAS Internal Team: This is a team of TAS employees with a goal to address technical or administrative needs within TAS. The team may have a specific task with a defined duration, or it may be ongoing. Members may represent a variety of TAS functions including SA, Technical Analysis and Guidance (TAG), Financial Operations, EDCA, lead and case advocates, etc. These teams may investigate and research issues and if appropriate request BOD involvement through a collaborative team, task force or advocacy proposal.

Proactive Working Groups: Working groups are usually subsets of a collaborative team. Working groups involve technical analysts from TAS and IRS working together to investigate and address a variety of issues including specific systemic case type issues as well as efforts to reduce burden or resolve a systemic problem.

Rapid Response Team (RRT): The EDSA may set-up a Rapid Response Team (RRT) to address high volume emerging issues in a rapidly evolving environment. The main purpose of a RRT is to fast track pertinent issues from SAMS and other sources into proper work streams. The validated issues then are quickly shared with IRS Program Owners for investigation and resolution. A RRT may be a stand-alone team or associated with a collaborative team.

Systemic Advocacy Recommendations Task Force: Each fiscal year, a task force will be set up on SAMS for the areas of examination, collection, processing, revenue protection, and taxpayer assistance. The purpose of the task forces is to track ad hoc recommendations and their outcomes in these program areas led by technical liaisons. Technical group members may also use these recommendation tracking task forces to capture recommendations and their outcome for any ad hoc [unassigned] accomplishments.

IRS Executive Steering Committee: TAS executives participate on various Executive Steering Committees with their counterparts in the IRS. These groups discuss ongoing high-level issues and make policy decisions.

Team Lead(s):

Documentation:

Reviews background materials and analysis to understand the issues to be addressed;

Collaborates with other team members, sharing information and perspectives, exploring issues, and developing recommendations to address systemic issues;

Provides status update reports of the team’s progress on a monthly or quarterly basis using the following template:

Makes recommendations and captures all appropriate details; and

Documents Outcome and Accomplishments using the following template:

TAS uses two different systems to record the actions of collaborative efforts and store documentation:

Collaborative Teams use SPO as the system of record for team actions and recommendations. The TAS Issue Tracking Task Force and SA Recommendations Task Force use SAMS as the system of record for team actions and recommendations. The Collaborative Team site on SPO also allows for documentation for outcomes/accomplishments.

Each collaborative team is identified under a specific network. These networks house a variety of team efforts and may change to reflect current needs. Examples include:

To request a new team be added to Collaborative Team SPO, access the button on the team site. The requester should provide the following metadata on the form:

The Request Form is submitted to the Collaborative Team SPO Administrators for review and shared with the Executive or appropriate managerial level for final approval. Once approved, the Administrators will notify the team leads it is ready for use.

Closing a Collaborative Team: When a Collaborative Team has completed its purpose, the team lead or team member will post a final statement on the team SPO site, providing a summary of team's accomplishments and reason for closure. The process is automated and alerts the Collaborative Teams Administrators. Once approved, the team will be closed. The team will remain on SPO for historical purposes.

Other Team Status Choices: If criteria is met update the status as follows: