| Publication 516 |
2000 Tax Year |
How To Get Tax Help
You can order free publications and forms, ask tax questions, and
get more information from the IRS in several ways. By selecting the
method that is best for you, you will have quick and easy access to
tax help. Access to most of these services depends on whether you are
inside or outside the United States.
Services Available
Inside the
United States
You can get help with unresolved tax issues, order free
publications and forms, ask tax questions, and get more information
from the IRS in several ways.
Contacting your Taxpayer Advocate.
If you have attempted to deal with an IRS problem unsuccessfully,
you should contact your Taxpayer Advocate.
The Taxpayer Advocate represents your interests and concerns within
the IRS by protecting your rights and resolving problems that have not
been fixed through normal channels. While Taxpayer Advocates cannot
change the tax law or make a technical tax decision, they can clear up
problems that resulted from previous contacts and ensure that your
case is given a complete and impartial review.
To contact your Taxpayer Advocate:
- Call the Taxpayer Advocate at
1-877-777-4778.
- Call the IRS at
1-800-829-1040.
- Call, write, or fax the Taxpayer Advocate office in your
area.
- Call 1-800-829-4059 if you are
a TTY/TDD user.
For more information, see Publication 1546, The Taxpayer
Advocate Service of the IRS.
Free tax services.
To find out what services are available, get Publication 910,
Guide to Free Tax Services. It contains a list of free tax
publications and an index of tax topics. It also describes other free
tax information services, including tax education and assistance
programs and a list of TeleTax topics.
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Personal computer. With your personal computer and
modem, you can access the IRS on the Internet at
www.irs.gov. While visiting our web site, you can select:
- Frequently Asked Tax Questions (located under
Taxpayer Help & Ed) to find answers to questions you
may have.
- Forms & Pubs to download forms and
publications or search for forms and publications by topic or
keyword.
- Fill-in Forms (located under Forms &
Pubs) to enter information while the form is displayed and then
print the completed form.
- Tax Info For You to view Internal Revenue
Bulletins published in the last few years.
- Tax Regs in English to search regulations and the
Internal Revenue Code (under United States Code
(USC)).
- Digital Dispatch and IRS Local News Net
(both located under Tax Info For Business) to receive
our electronic newsletters on hot tax issues and news.
- Small Business Corner (located under Tax
Info For Business) to get information on starting and operating
a small business.
You can also reach us with your computer using File Transfer
Protocol at ftp.irs.gov.
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TaxFax Service. Using the phone attached to your fax
machine, you can receive forms and instructions by calling
703-368-9694. Follow the directions from the
prompts. When you order forms, enter the catalog number for the form
you need. The items you request will be faxed to you.
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Phone. Many services are available by phone.
- Ordering forms, instructions, and publications.
Call 1-800-829-3676 to order
current and prior year forms, instructions, and publications.
- Asking tax questions. Call the IRS with your tax
questions at 1-800-829-1040.
- TTY/TDD equipment. If you have access to TTY/TDD
equipment, call 1-800-829- 4059 to ask
tax questions or to order forms and publications.
- TeleTax topics. Call
1-800-829-4477 to listen to pre-recorded
messages covering various tax topics.
Evaluating the quality of our telephone services. To
ensure that IRS representatives give accurate, courteous, and
professional answers, we evaluate the quality of our telephone
services in several ways.
- A second IRS representative sometimes monitors live
telephone calls. That person only evaluates the IRS assistor and does
not keep a record of any taxpayer's name or tax identification
number.
- We sometimes record telephone calls to evaluate IRS
assistors objectively. We hold these recordings no longer than one
week and use them only to measure the quality of assistance.
- We value our customers' opinions. Throughout this year, we
will be surveying our customers for their opinions on our
service.
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Walk-in. You can walk in to many post offices,
libraries, and IRS offices to pick up certain forms, instructions, and
publications. Also, some libraries and IRS offices have:
- An extensive collection of products available to print from
a CD-ROM or photocopy from reproducible proofs.
- The Internal Revenue Code, regulations, Internal Revenue
Bulletins, and Cumulative Bulletins available for research
purposes.
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Mail. You can send your order for forms, instructions,
and publications to the Distribution Center nearest to you and receive
a response within 10 workdays after your request is received. Find the
address that applies to your part of the country.
- Western part of U.S.:
Western Area Distribution Center
Rancho Cordova, CA 95743-0001
- Central part of U.S.:
Central Area Distribution Center
P.O. Box 8903
Bloomington, IL 61702-8903
- Eastern part of U.S. and foreign addresses:
Eastern Area Distribution Center
P.O. Box 85074
Richmond, VA 23261-5074
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CD-ROM. You can order IRS Publication 1796, Federal Tax Products on CD-ROM, and obtain:
- Current tax forms, instructions, and publications.
- Prior-year tax forms, instructions, and publications.
- Popular tax forms which may be filled in electronically,
printed out for submission, and saved for recordkeeping.
- Internal Revenue Bulletins.
The CD-ROM can be purchased from National Technical Information
Service (NTIS) by calling 1-877-233-6767
or on the Internet at www.irs.gov/cdorders. The first
release is available in mid-December and the final release is
available in late January.
IRS Publication 3207, Small Business Resource Guide, is
an interactive CD-ROM that contains information important to small
businesses. It is available in mid-February. You can get one free copy
by calling 1-800-829-3676.
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Services Available Outside the United States
During the filing period (January to mid-June), you can get the
necessary federal tax forms and publications from U.S. Embassies and
consulates. You can request Package 1040-7 for Overseas Filers,
which contains special forms with instructions and Publication 54.
Also during the filing season, the IRS conducts an overseas
taxpayer assistance program. To find out if IRS personnel will be in
your area, you should contact the consular office at the nearest U.S.
Embassy.
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Phone.You can also call your nearest U.S. Embassy,
consulate, or IRS office listed below to find out when and where
assistance will be available. These IRS telephone numbers include the
country and city codes required if you are outside the local dialing
area.
| Berlin, Germany |
(49) |
(30) |
8305-1140 |
| London, England |
(44) |
(207) |
408-8077 |
| Mexico City, Mexico |
(52) |
(5) |
209-9100 |
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Ext. 3557 |
| Paris, France |
(33) |
(1) |
4312-2555 |
| Rome, Italy |
(39) |
(06) |
4674-2560 |
| Singapore |
(65) |
| 476-9413 |
| Tokyo, Japan |
(81) |
(3) |
3224-5466 |
Overseas taxpayers can also call the Puerto Rico site for help
at (787) 759-5100.
If you are in Guam, the Bahamas, U.S. Virgin Islands, or Puerto
Rico, you can call 1-800-829-1040.
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Mail. For answers to technical or account questions, you
can write to:
Internal Revenue Service
International Returns Section
P.O. Box 920
Bensalem, PA 19020-8518.
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Personal computer. With your personal computer and
modem, you can access the IRS on the Internet at
www.irs.gov. For more information on the website, see
Personal computer under Services Available Inside the
United States, earlier.
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Contacting your Taxpayer Advocate.
If you have attempted to deal with an IRS problem unsuccessfully,
you should contact your Taxpayer Advocate.
The Taxpayer Advocate represents your interests and concerns within
the IRS by protecting your rights and resolving problems that have not
been fixed through normal channels. While Taxpayer Advocates cannot
change the tax law or make a technical tax decision, they can clear up
problems that resulted from previous contacts and ensure that your
case is given a complete and impartial review. |
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Mail. Persons living outside the United States may contact the Taxpayer Advocate at:
Internal Revenue Service
Taxpayer Advocate
P.O. Box 193479
San Juan, PR 00919.
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Phone. You can call the Taxpayer Advocate at (787)
759-4501. You can also contact one of the IRS offices
located abroad, listed earlier.
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Fax. You can fax the Taxpayer Advocate at (787)
759-4535.
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