0817 Publ 5206 (PDF)

Official source: IRS Forms, Instructions & Publications (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5206.pdf), retrieved 2026-10-03. U.S. Government work (17 U.S.C. § 105).

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Publication 5206 (Rev. 8-2017) Catalog Number 67546X Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service www.irs.gov

Our commitment…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2

How we comply with the Plain Writing Act…………………………………………………………………………… 2

Oversight…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

How we use plain writing…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

2016 accomplishments………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5

Notices and letters……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6

IRS.gov………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

Tax Tips………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 12

Publications and forms………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 12

Affordable Care Act……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18

Congressional, taxpayer and employee correspondence……………………………………………………….. 18

Privacy………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18

Sharing Plain Writing Act requirements……………………………………………………………………………….. 20

Training……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 20

Tools for employees……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 20

Moving forward………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 21

IRS plain writing webpage…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 22

Appendix - Plain Language Checklist and Review Sheet………………………………………………………… 23

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2016 Plain The Plain Writing Act of 2010 requires federal agencies to write clearly to ensure the public Writing Act Compliance Report understands government information and services. We are pleased to share our , which details our efforts to comply with the Act and, more importantly, to continue to improve our writing to provide the excellent level of service the public deserves.

The IRS Mission is to “Provide America's taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all.” Taxpayers are at the center of everything we do. Our responsibility to taxpayers is to provide timely and accurate information to help them meet their tax obligations and receive the tax credits for which they are eligible. To accomplish this, we must ensure that we communicate in clear, easily understandable language on all of our forms, publications, documents and notices. With more and more of the public turning to IRS.gov for information, we must also ensure that we write our online information in plain language. We are more committed than ever to using plain writing standards. We are incorporating plain writing principles in our employees’ training and in our overall business processes to meet that goal.

We have complied with the Act by accomplishing the following basic requirements:

Appointed a senior official to oversee plain writing compliance within the agency

• Created an Executive Steering Committee and a Working Group to help ensure IRS 2016 Plain Writing Compliance Report

• plain writing compliance Issued a

• Created a mechanism for public feedback and for responding to plain writing

• inquiries

• Created a plain language page on IRS.gov

• Trained our employees in plain language Established supporting activities for plain writing Used plain language in our documents, letters, notices and other written material

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general public tax/legal professionals The IRS serves two intended audience types: the and

• general public .

• general public The includes taxpayers or other stakeholders who are not trained tax specialists. Most IRS communications aimed at this group are about new or updated tax laws and instruct the public on how to be compliant or gather their tax information. Typically, this group does not have a need to understand technical regulatory language. The plain language we use for this group is clear, simple and meaningful. The general public includes individual taxpayers, small business owners

• and other stakeholders. Tax/legal professionals

• Tax/legal professionals are specialists trained to understand tax-related regulatory language. IRS communications for tax/legal professionals interpret complex tax law that requires regulatory language for legal clarity. The stakeholders in this group include third-party tax preparers, enrolled agents, attorneys, CPAs, 3

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employee plan administrators, members of Congress and congressional staff. The plain language we use for this group is clear and meaningful, but may include specialized terminology aimed at these professionals.

publications Plain language for the general public is different from plain language for tax/legal professionals. For example, are one type of IRS communication. The target audience for the IRS publication, Your Rights as a Taxpayer, is the general public because the content focuses on individual taxpayers. Conversely, the target audience for the IRS publication, Understanding the Employee Plans Examination Process, is tax/legal professionals because the content provides guidance to employee plan administrators. The IRS tailors the language in every type of communication to the subject expertise of the primary target audience.

The Office of Management and Budget’s Final Guidance on Implementing the Plain Writing Act of 2010 also directs agencies to use plain writing “when issuing new or substantially revised documents.” The IRS publishes more than 2,000 tax products. The IRS website, IRS.gov, has more than 36,000 .HTML pages and nearly 97,000 static or .PDF files. In addition, the IRS mails an average of 200 million notices annually to taxpayers. Each year,

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During 2016, the IRS maintained its commitment to using plain writing techniques when developing new products and web content, issuing and responding to correspondence and

Each year the IRS sends out millions of notices and letters to taxpayers on many issues. Generally, the IRS will send a notice if:

• A taxpayer may owe additional tax

• The taxpayer is due a larger refund There is a question about a tax return There is a need for additional information

Notices and letters cover very specific issues. They explain the reason for the correspondence and provide instructions.

During 2016, the IRS continued its efforts to redesign and revise correspondence to taxpayers for clarity, effectiveness and efficiency. Our revamped correspondence clearly explains the nature of the correspondence, what action the taxpayer must take and presents a clear, clean design.

New correspondence and correspondence products that haven’t been revised since 2013 have a plain language review by a senior writer. The table below shows the number of each

. We also reviewed and updated the “Understanding Your IRS Notice or Letter” webpages on IRS.gov These pages provide descriptions and visual samples of taxpayer correspondence we frequently send to the public. We reviewed and updated the descriptions for plain Revised Letters for Return Preparers language and consistency between various correspondences.

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We combined all e-file application letters into a total of 13 letters. They were updated and

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• Letter 5138 - Return Preparer EITC Client Audit Notification

• Letter 5364 - Warning to Refundable Credit Preparers – Missing Form 8867

• Letter 4858 – EITC Due Diligence Requirements for Return Preparers Letter 5025-H – EITC Due Diligence Reporting Household Help Income

• Letter 5025 – You may have Prepared Inaccurate Returns with Questionable

• Qualifying Children and Self-Employment Income Letter 5136 – American Opportunity Tax Credit Preparer Educational Letter Letter 5827 Additional Child Tax Credit Preparer Educational Letter

IRS.gov – 507 million visits with more than 1.9 billion page views Each day, more and more taxpayers turn to IRS.gov as their primary source for tax information. During 2016, IRS.gov received more than .

As part of our plain writing efforts, the IRS implemented content projects and content improvement projects that improved specific topics and content areas on the website.

The aim was to improve taxpayer satisfaction and compliance -- and to deflect costly taxpayer contacts -- by using plain writing techniques such as:

• Consolidating similar content

• Eliminating redundant and outdated content

• Reorganizing site pages in a user-friendly structure

• Focusing primary content on information useful to a general audience

• Writing clearly

• Using consistent language click here

• Making it easier for users to find the information they need by improving search effectiveness and replacing passive links with descriptive links

Key ex - amples include:

• “Let Us Help You” webpage - We consolidated redundant content and overhauled

the telephone assistance page titled “Let Us Help You.” The overhaul created an online experience to better se rve people who Google our phone number.

To accomplish this, we reviewed IRS call center data and identified top trouble areas for taxpayers. We then drafted new content and used an easy-to-navigate accordion

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style layout. Content is written in plain language and is separated by white space. The new navigation makes the content more accessible.

We used Google Analytics data to measure the results of the project. They included: o

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A 73 percent increase in page views to “Let Us Help You,” a result of

consolidating our four top contact pages

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o A 55 percent decline in visitors immediately abandoning the page

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A 20 percent decline in average time on page, suggesting that users can find the

information they need more quickly

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“Where’s My Amended Return?” webpage A 20 percent decline in clicks-to-call 1040 - number from this page

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• “Where’s My Amended Return?” webpage - We rewrote the amended return landing page to clearly inform users how long it takes us to process an amended return and how long to wait before calling ab out its status. We created a prominent button hyperlink leading to an applications page where the user can go to check on the status of their amended return.

We gathered information about the prior webpage and analyzed Google Analytics

o data for April 2015, and observed the following:

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1 million users visited the “Where’s My Amended Return” landing page on

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IRS.gov. 50K of these users visited the “How to Contact the IRS” page next. (Indicative of

not finding what they need on the site)

We also looked at phone assistance data for FY 2015. Of approximately 1,200 calls related to amended returns, 70 percent of callers could have been serviced online and the other 30 percent wanted confirmation of we received the amended return.

We did the following to correct the problems: o

o
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Rewrote the page using plain language

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Consolidated similar content

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Eliminated redundant and outdated content

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Reorganized site pages in a user-friendly structure Focused primary content on information useful to a general audience making it click here

click here easier for the user to find the information they need by improving search

“IRS Audits” webpage -

effectiveness and replacing passive links with descriptive links.

click here

• “IRS Audits” webpage - We re-worked the webpage with data-driven plain language. We reorganiz ed the topics into sections to clarify the information. The clear subheadings addr essed specific taxpayer goals and made the information the taxpayer wanted easier to find. In the same vein, we:

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Modified the resources available to the taxpayer in a more relevant manner Added hyperlinks specifically addressing the taxpayer’s needs 9

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Reworded linked text to clearly indicate its destination page Removed redundant or irrelevant information

“Free File: Do Your Federal Taxes for Free” landing page Created friendly URL addresses (irs.gov/audit and irs.go - v/audits)

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• “Free File: Do Your Federal Taxes for Free” landing page - We redesigned the webpage to make it more useful and intelligible to the user b y:

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Collapsing the right navigation section to make the hyperlinks less crowded Moving a video to the left navigation section to move relevant content higher up

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on the page

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Reducing the number of text links Creating relevant and clearly defined hyperlinks to better address individual

taxpayer goals.

• “Free File: About the Free File Alliance” webpages - We streamlined the Free File Alliance webpages and navigation and reworked the “ Free File: About the Free File Alliance” landing page. To improve the experience for readers, we:

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Reduced the number of redundant webpages and reformatted PDF files to be

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508 accessible Unpublished 10 redundant pages

oo The changes made it easier for visitors to reach relevant content with:

Fewer pages to confuse visitors

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An easier path for visitors to the Free File products Section 508 accessible PDFs allowing persons with disabilities access the

information they need

• “Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project Credits and Grants” application webpage - We reduced the number of redundant webpages and reformatted PD F files to be 508 accessible. We unpublished 10 redundant pages: o

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Free Online Electronic Tax Filing Agreement Signed

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Free On-line Electronic Tax Filing Agreement Eight supporting standard webpages

o The changes made it easier for visitors to reach relevant content with: o

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Fewer pages to confuse visitors

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An easier path for visitors to the Free File products Section 508 accessible PDFs allowing persons with disabilities access the

information they need

• “Finding Out How Much You Owe” webpage – We created a new webpage using plain language principles and highlighting the a ction items a taxpayer could take. The page’s bounce rate (the rate at which users 10 enter the IRS.gov site on a page and

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leave the site from the same page – a possible sign of dissatisfaction) has dropped to 18.7 percent from 39.5 percent, likely due to content improvemen “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)” landing page – ts.

• “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)” landing page – We redesigned the FATCA program’s home landing page by removing excessive h yperlinks and organizing the links by topic, making the webpage’s structure eas ier to scan. We

placed the application links in prominent positions, making them easier for the

• viewer to find. Voluntary Certification Program for Professional Employer Organizations

• Voluntary Certification Program for Professional Employer Organizations web content – (CPEOs) We created new plain language content for professiona l

• employer organizations seeking Modernized e-File Status Page IRS certification, including a registration page.

• Modernized e-File Status Page - We updated this status page for software

developers and transmitters for Modernized e-_File by shortening paragraphs, making simple sentences, reduci ng jargon and acronyms. We applied user feedback to streamline content to promote online tools and help taxpayers readily locate their

• nearest IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center. Identity Protection: Prevention, Detection and Victim Assistance -

• Identity Protection: Prevention, Detection and Victim Assistance - To help victims of tax-related identity theft, we reviewed more than 15 identit y theft pages on IRS.gov bi-monthly and compared them to taxpayer queries. We el iminated scrolling, reduced content and applied hover text to items that may not be intuitive for a reader.

We upgraded the content on the following webpages to improve individual taxpayers’ experience, improve taxpayer satisfaction and compliance and deflect costly taxpayer co - ntacts: Tax Information for Employees

• Tax Information for Employees

• Tax Information for Members of the Military

• Tax Information for Parents

• Seniors and Retirees

• To help taxpayers prepare Seniors and Retirees for the 2016 tax filing season and address peak filing season

assistance requests, we used plain language principles to create new online content and

• update and improve existing webpages. Take Steps Now for Filing Season

• Take Steps Now for Filing Season

• Avoid the Rush: Online Options Help You Avoid Rush

(.pdf)

• We continued to review and improve Earned Income Tax Cre dit online information to

si - mplify existing language and add clarification. Earned Income Tax Credit and Other Refundable Credits

• Earned Income Tax Credit and Other Refundable Credits

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• What is Form 8867

• Due Diligence Training Module

The IRS creates Tax Tips to educate the public on tax topics affecting millions of Americans. Tax Tips cover many topics to help people with their federal taxes. Many Tips explain how people can lower their tax bill with tax credits and deductions that they may easily overlook. We also explain how to get free tax help and how to avoid tax scams. Our goal is to help the public file accurate and timely tax returns. IRS.gov

IRS.gov We make Tax Tips available through a free email subscription and on . We send them daily during the tax filing season and three times a week in the summer. We issue Special Edition Tax Tips as needed during the year to highlight impor tant topi cs of interest to the public.

Since July 2012, the IRS has applied plain writing principles to the Tax Tips, improving readability scores by reducing passive sentences, improving reading ease and reducing the increase Tax Tip e-subscriptions by 106 percent grade level of the Tips to 8.0 or lower. These improvements, combined with increased more than 648,700 Tax Tip e-subscriptions. publicity, have helped since July 2012. As of Dec. 31, 2016, there were

648,700

Following the success of the Tax Tip program, the IRS started a new service for Spanish- 41,700 recipients speaking taxpayers using plain language in April 2014. The Spanish Tax Tip e-subscriptions have now reached more than .

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The IRS conducted significant outreach in 2016 to inform taxpayers about the Affordable Care Act. We used plain writing - techniques in all of our ACA-related communications. Highlights include:

• 23 Maintained web content IRS.gov/aca in both English and Spanish

• Reviewed and refreshed sets of Q& As for individuals and families, employers and

• other entities and organi 118 zations

• Released 62 e-News items, Exempt 57 Organ izations updates and guidance releases Created Health Care Tax Tips (includes English and Spanish)

• Included ACA messages i 6 n regular 2016 Tax Tips (FS, Summer and special

• edition includes both En 19 glish and Spanish) Maintained Fact Sheets and added new Fact Sheet(s) Released News Releases with ACA information

The IRS also applies plain language standards when responding to inquiries we receive at our headquarters. The office is charged with overseeing congressional, taxpayer and IRS employee correspondence addressed to the commissioner and deputy commissioners. The office edited approximately:

1,332 responses to congressional offices

We re - designed key privacy-r Privacy Policy Page – elated content, including:

• Privacy Policy Page – We completed a line-by-line revision to simplify and clarify privacy policy. We ad ded links and language to adhere to OMB A-108 and OMB M
• Publication 1075, Tax Information Security Guidelines for Federal, State and

17-06 requirements, including a privacy complaint process. Local Agencies (Catalog 469370) – We made 51 changes to technical content and updates to the table of contents, index and hyperlinks.

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• Governmental Liaison & Data Exchange Program Specification Books - We

reworded to reduce sentence length so the information is easier to read, clear and concise. We corrected passive sentences and included hyperlinks where possible,

• Governmental Liaison & Data Exchange Program Enrollment Forms making it easier for the reader to find what they need quickly.

  • We

changed tables from double column to single column for easy reading and completion. All instructions are together and the document is easier to understand and complete.

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IRS Style Guide – To help ensure that all IRS written products – printed and online – are clear, consistent and follow plain language principles, the Plain Language Act Working Group, published the online IRS Style Guide (Document 13275). The guide is designed to be used by all IRS employees a nd includes chapters on grammar, s pelling, online terms, acronyms, plain language a nd more. We continue to create awar eness of the IRS Style

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Guide by issuing articles in our all-employee newsletter and on our employee website.

Taxpayer Advocate Service - We’ll continue to update and raise awareness of the guide throughout 2017 and beyond.

Taxpayer Advocate Service - The Taxpayer Advocate Service is an independent organization within the IRS that protects taxpayer rights and helps individuals, businesses and exempt organizations resolve problems they can’t resolve with the IRS. In calendar year 2015, TAS launched the Welcome Screen, which serves as a key platform for employee engagement. TAS continues its use of both the Associated Press Stylebook and IRS Style Guide writing guidelines for all content posted on the Welcome Screen. This provides a consistent set of rules for all of our news article writers to follow which, in turn, improves

Media & Publications –

our plain writing skills.

Media & Publications – M&P’s role in the IRS is significant, in that it plans and produces or procures all IRS print and electronic communications products the public uses to comply with tax filing requirements and obligations and employees use for tax administration. This encompasses the design, production planning and delivery/distribution coordination required to provide the highest quality products and services, using all available print and electronic media and technology. Each year, M&P is responsible for approximately 1,100 tax and 15,000 non-tax products and

For 2017, we will continue to promote the use of plain language throughout the IRS in the followi - ng ways:

Publicize our Plain Writing Toolkit. The Toolkit includes basic elements of plain

• writing, the Plain Language Checklist and Review Sheet and a link to the Federal

• Plain Language Guidelines Publish articles on the Act and its requirements on our agency intranet

• Update and continue to pu blicize a consolidated IRS Style Guide to ensure consistent use of plain language techniques for all forms of communications

• Use communications professionals as plain writing subject matter experts to help other IRS professionals with product development

• Continue to update our Internal Revenue Manuals to reflect plain language requirements

• Continue to require all new employees to complete the Plain Writing Act of 2010 briefing Continue to require all key IRS.gov contributors and communications staff complete Writing for the Web training

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http://www.IRS.gov/plainwriting Website address

Contact us page:

https://www.irs.gov/uac/Plain-Language-at-the-IRS-Report-an-Issue-Tell-Us- What-You-Think

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