 Internal Revenue Service IRS tax news, low-income taxpayer clinics responded nearly 20,000 taxpayers dealing with an IRS tax controversy, but first, an attempt at a joke I apologize in advance. When asked how he plans on handling the well-over and ever-increasing $30 trillion debt, President Biden responded, well, I think the debt at this point is clearly big enough to handle itself. Reporters responding, yes, and the debt also seems more than big enough to manhandle us, possibly large enough to actually pick us all up and throw us into bankruptcy. President Biden then speculated, I know, maybe the United States government can pay its debt off if we won the lottery, proposing to spend any remaining money China would be willing to loan us on lottery tickets. Reporters rolling their eyes, taking a deep calming breath, responding, yes, but even if we won the lottery, how would we pay off the other $29,999,999 million dollars? Meeting adjourned. Meeting up aisle 7, the rational and irrational neutral section. The administration's spokesperson explaining that, yes, spending all remaining United States credit on lottery tickets is not rational, but it is the President's truth. And in order to respect that, we will compromise meeting in the middle, only spending half of the United States remaining credit on lottery tickets. You see, compromising on truth, that's how we bring integrity back into the United States government. IR2022-30, February 9, 2022, Washington, the Internal Revenue Services Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, the LITC, there's a link to that here, program office today announced highlights from its 2021 annual report, there's a link to the annual report here. The report describes how LITCs provide representation, education and advocacy for individual taxpayers who are low income or speak English as a second language. The LITC program is a federal grant program, administrative by the Taxpayer Advocate Service, led by National Taxpayer Advocate Aaron M. Collins, LITCs represent individuals whose incomes are largely at or below 250% of the federal poverty guideline and who are seeking to resolve tax problems with the IRS, such as audits, appeals and tax collection disputes. LITCs can represent taxpayers in court as well as before the IRS, they also can provide information about taxpayer rights and responsibilities in different languages for ESL taxpayers. LITCs provide services for free or a small fee, they receive IRS grants but work independently to assist and advocate for taxpayers. Thousands of taxpayers assisted during 2020, LITCs represented nearly 20,000 taxpayers dealing with an IRS tax controversy and provided consultation or advice to another 18,000 taxpayers. They helped taxpayers secure more than $5.8 million in tax refunds and reduce or corrected taxpayers' liabilities by over $116 million. They also brought more than 2,900 taxpayers back into the payment compliance. Through outreach and education activities, LITCs strive to ensure individuals understood their rights as U.S. taxpayers by conducting more than 1,000 educational activities that were attended by nearly 134,000 individuals. Some 1,500 volunteers contributed to the success of LITCs by volunteering over 42,000 hours of their time. Nearly 65% of the volunteers were attorneys, certified public accountants or enrolled agents. LITCs used a variety of approaches to successfully advocate for taxpayers. These include utilizing collection alternatives to resolve issues administratively within the IRS, litigating cases in the United States tax court and other federal courts, and elevating systematic issues through the Taxpayer Advocate Services Systematic Advocacy Management System. One success story among many. Here is one example of how an LITC assisted a taxpayer in need. A low-income taxpayer was working in a local grocery store making minimum wage. She was the sole breadwinner for her family of four and had never filed a federal income tax return. The IRS sent her statutory notices of deficiency for four tax years, asserting that she owed several thousand of dollars based on unreported income. Unsure what she could do to resolve this issue, the taxpayer sought help from the LITC. The LITC elevated the case and explained that she needed to contest the notices in the U.S. tax court. The LITC helped her file a tax court petition and argued that the taxpayer did not owe tax but instead was due refunds as she was eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, the AITC and Child Tax Credit, the CTC. The LITC's advocacy on the taxpayer's behalf was a success. She ultimately received over $16,000 in refunds providing the taxpayer with a valuable financial lifeline. In addition to helping the taxpayer resolve her tax issue, the LITC educated her about tax administration and the tax law including how to have future tax returns prepared and filed for free at a local volunteer income tax assistance site and the availability of anti-poverty tax benefits such as the EITC and the CTC. As the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, the full report contains extensive details about the LITC program and more stories about the extraordinary results that LITC achieved on behalf of their clients. How to become an LITC through the LITC program, the IRS awards matching grants of up to $100,000 per year to qualified organizations. If anyone is interested in learning more about the LITC grant program, they should contact Karen Tobber at and there's an email here or review Publication 3319 grant application guidelines. There's a link to that here. So if you want that information, there'll be a link to this in the description.