IRS expands tax help into more languages; Form 1040 offered in Spanish and more services, information available in multiple languages
As part of a larger effort to reach under-served communities, the Internal Revenue Service is taking a number of aggressive steps to expand information and assistance available to taxpayers in additional languages, including providing the Form 1040 in Spanish for the first time.
In addition to being available in English and Spanish, the 2020 Form 1040 will also give taxpayers the opportunity to indicate whether they wish to be contacted in a language other than English. This is a new feature available for the first time this coming filing season.
Other changes include Publication 1, Your Rights as a Taxpayer, is now available in 20 languages. The 2020 version of Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax, will be available early next year in seven languages – English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, Korean and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional).
The agency’s newly expanded multilingual initiative is a key part of helping the IRS reach its goal of helping everyone, no matter where they live, what their background is, or what language they speak.
“Our diverse workforce is extremely proud to be able ease the inherent burden on taxpayers attempting to voluntarily comply with their tax responsibilities, including people who are more comfortable with other languages,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “We are continually increasing the information and services available in other languages as well as expanding our interpreter services so that we can interact in a more respectful manner with taxpayers in their most comfortable language. We expect to continue these important efforts as we work to earn the trust and respect of every American.”
As part of this expansion, many of the pages on the IRS.gov site are now available in seven languages and basic tax information is newly available in 20 languages on IRS.gov. It also means that taxpayers who interact with an IRS representative now have access to over the phone interpreter services in more than 350 languages. The IRS has also recently begun inserting information about translation services and other multilingual options into the high-volume notices that IRS sends out to taxpayers.
While the IRS has long provided some assistance in Spanish and some other languages, the agency is increasing the materials available in multiple languages and expanding outreach with multilingual community partners. Most recently, the IRS worked with partners in the tax and low-income communities and provided them with information and resources that they quickly translated and made available in an unprecedented 35 languages, promoting the Economic Impact Payments. The IRS plans to continue this effort on other agency priorities, including the 2021 filing season. The agency has also been increasing its multilingual outreach on Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms during the past 18 months.
In coming months and years, the agency will continue to expand the availability of widely used IRS forms and popular publications in multiple languages. This includes increasing the number of highly visited IRS.gov web pages accessible in seven languages later this year.
For more information about tax help in other languages, visit IRS.gov
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