Operationalizing Language Access Rights For Limited English Proficient Taxpayers

Abstract

Taxpayers with limited English proficiency (LEP) face inherent barriers to exercising important rights under the tax laws. This Essay, prepared for the Temple Law Review‘s Symposium, Taxpayer Rights in the United States: All the Angles, explains the legal obligations that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has for making the tax system accessible to LEP taxpayers. While the IRS has developed comprehensive written policies for language access, it still faces challenges in operationalizing these rights for LEP taxpayers.