IRS Announces Contest To Design The "Taxpayer Experience of the Future"

The IRS has announced a competition, the Tax Design Challenge, aimed at having members of the public "begin reimagining the taxpayer experience of the future."
 
In a Federal Register notice on March 22, the Service said entries—eligible for cash prizes of up to $10,000—should be directed at how to "design, organize, and present tax information in a way that makes it easier for taxpayers to manage their taxpayer responsibilities, and to use their own taxpayer data to make informed and effective decisions about their personal finances."
 
Tax information is available now, the IRS said, but many taxpayers don't know where to find it or how to use it, and it "can be incomprehensible to those who are not financial professionals."
 
Prizes will be funded by the co-sponsor, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and paid by the IRS, the notice said.  Entry submission dates are from April 17 to May 10.  We encourage entries to avoid suggesting ways for the IRS to do the physically impossible.
 
More information is at www.taxdesignchallenge.com