Mission:

Wage and Investment Division (W&I;) will educate and assist our customers in understanding and satisfying their tax responsibilities. We will provide this service in a high quality, fair, and equitable manner through partnership between management, employees and stakeholders.

Strategic Priorities:

The Wage and Investment Division supports the IRS' strategic goals and objectives through initiatives that:

• Meet the needs of taxpayers.
• Reduce taxpayer burden.
• Broaden the use of electronic interactions.
• Address key areas of non-compliance.
• Stabilize traditional compliance activities.
• Recruit, develop and retain a quality workforce.
• Provide high-quality, efficient, responsive information and shared support services.

Headquarters:

Atlanta, GA

Management Team:

Henry Lamar, Commissioner
Richard Morgante, Deputy Commissioner
Ty Ayers, Director, Customer Assistance, Relationships and Education
Dave Medeck, Director, Customer Account Services
Pamela Watson, Director, Compliance

Taxpayer Profile:

• Approximately 122 million customers accounting for 94 million returns
• Most pay taxes through withholdings
• More than half prepare their own returns
• Most interact with the IRS once a year
• Most receive refunds

The W&I; Division has been designed to enable IRS employees to focus on educating and assisting taxpayers in all phases of interactions with the IRS, through the following three organization offices:

1. Customer, Assistance, Relationships and Education (CARE) will provide customers with the information, support, and assistance they need to understand and fulfill their tax obligations.
2. Customer Account Services (CAS) will be responsible for taxpayer relationships through filing, including processing submissions and payments; providing taxpayers with information on the status of their returns and resolving the majority of problems and inconsistencies.
3. Compliance will be focused on a relatively limited range of issues, concentrating on dependent exemptions, credits, filing status and deductions.

• More on Customer, Assistance, Relationships and Education (CARE) - CARE will focus on better service to customers through a three pronged strategic approach:
• Media and Publications - This office will focus on meeting customer needs through the development of plain language notices, forms and publications, which facilitate tax administration and ease of compliance by taxpayers, and to supply media production services to customers.

Key elements:

• Developing, publishing and distributing tax forms, publications, and instructions to taxpayers

• Stakeholder Partnership Education and Communication (SPEC) - This office will provide assistance to W&I; customers by building and maintaining partnerships with key stakeholder groups. This unit will also be responsible for developing educational materials for use in pre-filing, filing and post-filing customer interactions and developing products for use in marketing and working with local and national media to ensure that our customers are aware of tax law changes and IRS services.

Key elements:

• Building and managing partnerships with key stakeholder groups
• Working with partners to market and deliver educational products and services
• Developing mass media materials
• Developing marketing programs
• Working with Strategic Programs to identify taxpayer education needs
• Delivering education programs and materials

• Field Assistance - This office will provide comprehensive face-to-face assistance with taxpayers as well as assistance through telephone and written correspondence.

Key Elements:

• Ownership and management of Taxpayer Assistance Centers
• Assistance of W&I; and SB/SE customers
• Exam, collection and other compliance activities
• Taxpayer education activities in conjunction with SPEC
• Technical assistance to SB/SE customers

Key Contacts: