But the jury is still out on whether the much-publicized IRS reform law is making the agency treat taxpayers better. Senate Finance Committee Chairman William Roth, whose hearings last year helped spark the reforms, said he believes only about 20 percent of all IRS employees support the changes. We're talking about changing attitudes. We have only just begun. Rossotti promised the new rules would prevent a duplication of last year's 80,000 rejections out of 105,000 offers.
Installment agreements are also easier to get.
More and more people are depending on professional tax preparers to do their taxes an estimated 61 million returns this year. One big reason is the tax code's complexity, which Congress increased the past two years with more than 1,200 tax law changes. It is unclear whether taxpayers will have to deal with more changes next year. Yet anti-tax sentiment continues to run high on Capitol Hill. Coinciding with the tax deadline, the House today was planning to debate for the fifth year in a row a proposed constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds vote of Congress to pass most tax increases.