IRS considers eliminating non-English language tax services
The people said the IRS is evaluating how to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order declaring English the official language of the United States — a power that some legal scholars say the president does not have. Both people spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional reprisal.
Attorney General Pam Bondi issued guidance to federal agencies on July 14 on how to implement that order. It requires officials to release department-wide plans 'to phase out unnecessary multilingual offerings' and 'consider redirecting these funds towards research and programs that would expedite English-language acquisition and increase English-language proficiency and assimilation.'
'A shared language binds Americans together, transcending different backgrounds to create a common foundation for public discourse, government operations, and civic life, while leaving ample room for the vibrant linguistic diversity that thrives in private and community spheres,' Bondi's memo said.
The United States by law does not require an official language, though Trump signed an order on March 1 declaring it 'in America's best interest for the Federal Government to designate one — and only one — official language.'
'Establishing English as the official language will not only streamline communication but also reinforce shared national values, and create a more cohesive and efficient society,' Trump's order states.
In response to Bondi's guidance, Treasury Department officials wrote in emails Sunday that the IRS would need to revaluate the agency's 'Commitment to assist non-English speaking taxpayers understand their tax obligations states,' a policy that now requires it to serve 'those who lack a full command of the English language.'
It may also need to review — and decide whether to cease providing — translations for more than 100 forms in Spanish and other languages, free phone and in-person translation services, the IRS's multi-language website, its Spanish-language social media accounts and programs that allow taxpayers to receive forms and notifications in the language of their choosing.
Representatives from the White House and Treasury Department did not respond to requests for comment. A Justice Department representative declined to comment.
It's not clear how other federal agencies are will implement Trump's order. Bondi said, in her guidance, that she was ending the federal government's Limited English Proficiency services, which dictates how agencies serve individuals for whom English is not their first language or who struggle with English comprehension.
The IRS's current civil rights policy says the agency 'does not tolerate discrimination by its employees against anyone because of age, sex, color, disability, race, religion, and national origin (including limited English proficiency).'
The tax service eliminated its civil rights division in April. Separately, fears among Spanish-speaking taxpayers about the IRS's collaboration with immigration enforcement officials led to steep drops in tax compliance among immigrant communities in certain parts of the country.
'Somebody is calling usually because they have a problem, and if they can't get through to someone who speaks their language, it just delays everything,' said Carlos Lopez, who runs a multilingual tax prep service in Salinas, California. 'The people who are calling the IRS are looking for help for free, most of the time because they can't afford it. So what do you do? You don't pay.'
The IRS in March renewed its contract for phone interpreter services, according to two other people familiar with the matter, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional reprisal. Officials from the U.S. DOGE Service, the Trump administration's cost-cutting arm, had required the tax agency to review all of its expiring contracts.
Senior IRS and Treasury Department officials agreed the interpreters were necessary, the people said, though the contract was renewed for only a handful of months. It is set to expire before the end of the year, one of the people said. It is unclear whether new IRS Commissioner Billy Long will continue the services.
'I believe maintaining multilingual options for how taxpayers engage the IRS is essential to the mission,' Danny Werfel, the IRS commissioner under the Biden administration, said in an interview. 'The IRS is charged with helping people and businesses meet their tax obligations. The more comprehensively the IRS does that, regardless of what language they do it in, the better the financial bottom line of our nation's government will be.'
Building the IRS's multilingual capabilities was a priority of Trump's first-term IRS commissioner, Charles Rettig.
The son of a German immigrant and the spouse of a native Vietnamese speaker, Rettig led the agency to provide tax-filing forms in Spanish beginning in 2021 and to translate the IRS's 20 most issued notices into Spanish, simplified and traditional Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Russian.
That year, there were nearly 90 million visits to non-English pages on the IRS's website, the agency reported.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
25 minutes ago
- The Hill
Asian shares mostly slip as focus shifts to US talks with China
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly declined Tuesday as some of the euphoria fizzled out over a tariff deal with Japan as proposed by President Donald Trump, which was followed by a similar deal with the European Union. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped nearly 0.7% to 40,725.23. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.3% to 8,670.50. South Korea's Kospi was little changed after reversing earlier losses, edging less than 0.1% higher to 3,212.59. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.1% to 25,276.36, while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.3% to 3,586.93. Analysts said markets were watching for the latest from Trump, which are now focused on the talks with China. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng were meeting in Sweden. Bessent has said the negotiations will likely lead to an extension of current tariff levels. There was no significant new information after the first day of talks. 'Aside from addressing economic imbalances, tariffs are also now well entrenched in the geo-political arena,' Tan Boon Heng of the Asia & Oceania Treasury Department at Mizuho Bank said in a commentary. Last week, Trump announced a trade framework, placing a 15% tax on goods imported from Japan, a level far lower than the earlier 25% rate that the president had indicated. Trump also said Japan would invest $550 billion into the U.S. and open up to U.S. autos and rice. Details are still unclear, but the accord set off some momentary relief. U.S. stock indexes drifted through a quiet Monday after the United States agreed to tax cars and other products coming from the European Union at a 15% rate, lower than Trump had threatened. Many details of the trade deal are still to be worked out, and Wall Street is heading into a week full of potential flashpoints that could shake markets, including an interest rate decision Wednesday by the Federal Reserve. The widespread expectation on Wall Street is that Fed officials will wait until September to resume cutting interest rates, though a couple of Trump's appointees could dissent in the vote. The Fed has been on hold with interest rates this year since cutting them several times at the end of 2024. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was nearly flat, edging up by less than 0.1% to 6,389.77 and setting an all-time high for a sixth straight day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1% to 44,837.56, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.3% to its own record, closing at 21,178.58. Tesla rose 3% after its CEO, Elon Musk, said it had signed a deal with Samsung Electronics that could be worth more than $16.5 billion to provide computer chips for the electric-vehicle company. Samsung's stock in South Korea jumped 6.8%. Other companies in the chip and artificial-intelligence industries were strong, continuing their run from last week after Alphabet said it was increasing its spending on AI chips and other investments to $85 billion this year. Chip company Advanced Micro Devices rose 4.3%, and server-maker Super Micro Computer climbed 10.2%. But an 8.3% drop for Revvity helped to keep the market in check. The company in the life sciences and diagnostics businesses reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than Wall Street expected, but its forecast for full year profit disappointed analysts. Companies are broadly under pressure to deliver solid growth in profits following big jumps in their stock prices the last few months. Much of the gain was due to hopes that Trump would walk back some of his stiff proposed tariffs, and critics say the U.S. stock market looks expensive unless companies will produce bigger profits. Hundreds of U.S. companies are lined up to report how much profit they made during the spring, with nearly a third of the businesses in the S&P 500 index scheduled to deliver updates. In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude inched up 1 cent to $66.72 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 6 cents to $70.10 a barrel. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 148.56 Japanse yen from 148.54 yen. The euro cost $1.1600, up from $1.1593.
Politico
26 minutes ago
- Politico
Trump admin escalates its war with the courts — this time targeting Judge Boasberg
Boasberg's remarks at the conference came after weeks of Trump allies inside and outside the administration suggesting judges who rule against the president should be impeached and disfavored court orders should be ignored. Judges at every level — including justices of the Supreme Court — have raised the specter of defiance by the administration and urged officials to respect court orders regardless of which court or judge issues them. Jeffrey Sutton, the chief judge of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals who briefed journalists after the conference that day, said several lawmakers were in attendance, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), as well as Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.). It is unclear whether the lawmakers heard Boasberg's remarks. A spokesperson for Boasberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mizelle's complaint falls to Sri Srinivasan, the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, who oversees judicial disciplinary matters for judges in that circuit. Federal judges are ordinarily barred from making out-of-court public comments about pending or impending matters. It's unclear whether Boasberg's remarks at the judges' meeting qualify and whether he was speaking about any case he knew to be pending or imminent. The complaint also makes more general claims that his statements undermined 'public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary.' Mizelle also filed a complaint earlier this year against Washington-based U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes for her sharp-elbowed comments about the Justice Department's arguments in a lawsuit seeking to block Trump's transgender military ban. In March, the Justice Department asked the D.C. Circuit to remove Boasberg from the deportation case and reassign it to another judge, an extraordinary step. The appeals court never acted on that request but has paused his orders related to potential contempt proceedings. After Boasberg's March ruling, Trump called for the judge's impeachment, labeling him a 'troublemaker and agitator.' The new complaint again asks for Boasberg's removal from the deportation case and for him to be reprimanded publicly. It also raises the prospect of his fellow judges calling for his impeachment over the remarks. The administration has recently escalated its fight with the judiciary in two other arenas. The Justice Department sued the entire federal bench in Maryland over a policy granting an automatic 48-hour hold on deportation cases. And the administration publicly attacked judges in New Jersey for appointing a veteran federal prosecutor as the state's U.S. attorney — an effort to push aside Trump's pick for the post, his former personal attorney Alina Habba.
26 minutes ago
Jordan requesting US help with Gaza aid airdrops but Trump administration has no plans to assist, officials say
As international pressure to deliver more food aid to Gaza builds, the Kingdom of Jordan is "continuing to request assistance in the form of pledges to contribute aircraft, supplies, humanitarian aid, and logistical support" for its airdrop operation -- but the Trump administration has no active plans to join European allies in helping with the mission at present, according to an internal State Department communication reviewed by ABC News on Monday and two U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Per the communication, Jordan has informed the State Department of its intention to launch a three-week airdrop operation beginning in early August -- in addition to the drops conducted with the United Arab Emirates that took place Sunday -- and the department is tracking various pledges to assist with the operation from Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. "Emphasizing the irreplicable role of land routes and minimizing the risk of casualties due to airdrops are continued concerns among potential contributors," the department communication noted. Some aid organizations have also publicly expressed concerns about the efficacy and safety of airdrops. "Airdrops are the most expensive & inefficient way to deliver aid. It is a distraction to the inaction," Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency Philippe Lazzarini wrote in a post on X on Friday. Earlier Monday, President Donald Trump promised the U.S. would be "even more involved" when it comes to delivering aid to Gaza, saying this administration would work with European allies to set up "food centers" with fewer restrictions on access. He also suggested that additional assistance could come in the form of the U.S. helping with air drops if his administration chose to do so. "We did some airlifts before, some airdrops," he said following a meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "It's not very hard to do, actually." Jordan has also informed the State Department that it encountered significant delays when moving aid into Gaza by ground on Sunday, stating that the Israeli government allowed only 25 out of 60 trucks traveling from Jordan to enter the enclave. According to the internal communication, the Jordanian Armed Forces reported that the screening of the aid convoy "went substantially slower" than it has for three previous convoys organized by the country. The 25 trucks that were permitted entry on Sunday were carrying World Food Programme contents, while the delayed trucks were carrying food supplies from other organizations, including World Central Kitchen and the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization, it added. Jordan has informed the department of its intention to move two more convoys into Gaza this week, according to the communication. "President Trump wants to alleviate suffering for the people of Gaza because he has a humanitarian heart. He announced a new aid plan today to help Gazans obtain crucial access to food – details are forthcoming," White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a comment to ABC News. Trump said earlier that European countries would also help with his plan to set up food centers but shared few other details about his vision. "We have all of the European nations joining us, and others also have called. So, we're going to set up food centers and where the people can walk in and no boundaries. We're not going to have fences," he said. Regarding ABC News reporting on Jordan's request for assistance with its air drop operation and the reported delay moving ground aid into Gaza caused by Israel, a State Department spokesperson responded, "President Trump has called for creative solutions 'to help the Palestinians' in Gaza, and we welcome any effective effort that delivers food to Gazans and keeps it out of the hands of Hamas." "At this time, GHF remains the best mechanism for getting aid into the hands of people in desperate need in Gaza while also keeping aid out of the hands of Hamas," the spokesperson said, referring to the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. "A track record of distributing over 94 million meals to date while preventing any Hamas looting is absolutely incredible and should be commended and supported. We call on other aid agencies and the UN to participate in this secure aid delivery system and take GHF up on its offer to use its system to deliver food to Gazans in need," the spokesperson said. The Trump administration has pledged at least $30 million to the GHF and thrown its full support behind the controversial charity despite concerns from critics regarding its aid distribution practices. Earlier this month, more than 160 charity groups and NGOs called for the GHF to be shut down, claiming that more than 500 Palestinians had been killed while seeking aid from the organization and that its distribution locations 'have become sites of repeated massacres in blatant disregard for international humanitarian law.' The United Nations has also rejected requests to cooperate with GHF. 'We welcome working with any other partners. All we ask is that those partners work based on the most basic humanitarian principles, one of them being that don't set up an operation that will increase the risk of people to be shot at or trampled while trying to get food,' U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a press conference last week. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation pushed back on the criticism in a statement to ABC News. "While Oxfam, MSF and these other groups hold press conferences and send out threatening letters, GHF is on the ground feeding people," a GHF spokesperson said. "We've offered to help them deliver it safely. They've refused. The humanitarian community must return to its core mission -- feeding people -- not protecting outdated systems or avoiding the discomfort of change. In a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday, a group of 21 Democratic senators called for the Trump administration to immediately cease funding for the GHF and resume support for the existing U.N-led aid coordination mechanisms.
