IRS London Office is CLOSED

just read this: http://london.usembassy.gov/irs/index.html

IRS London Office is CLOSED

The IRS office at the U.S. Embassy London is now permanently closed.
Please call 020-7894-0477 for an automated message with updates.

This office is no longer offering taxpayer assistance (mail, walk-ins or telephone).   Please DO NOT send any more IRS forms or tax correspondence to the U.S. Embassy.  Any further mail sent to our office will be marked RETURN TO SENDER.  Please send all mail directly to the U.S.A. addresses in the forms’ instructions.

Forms & Publications

Downloadable forms, publications, and answers to your federal tax questions can be found at http://www.IRS.gov
The website contains a wide variety of topics, including information for international and military taxpayers.

If you would like to receive forms by U.S. mail, you can order them at http://www.irs.gov/uac/Forms-and-Publications-by-U.S.-Mail or by calling 001-800-829-3976 FREE.

U.S. Customer Service

For assistance you can call or fax the Philadelphia International Customer Service Site, which is open 17 hours a day Monday through Friday, from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time:

Tel: 001-267-941-1000 (not toll free) ; select the option for international callers

Fax: 001-267-941-1055 (a response should be received within 10-12 working days)

I think it's been closed for a while now.


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Due to cuts in IRS funding, apparently.  It seems they're being cut to the bone, which is odd, to say the least, in view of the simultaneous push to implement FATCA etc. 

Seven former IRS Commissioners have written a long letter spelling it out:

To place the impact on our tax system of the Congressional IRS appropriations reductions over the last five years in its proper context, Congress almost annually over the last 25 years has passed legislation that has imposed additional burdens on IRS tax collection and administration under our revenue laws. During this time, the Congress also repeatedly added more and more socio-economic incentives to the tax code and called upon the IRS to administer these new socio-economic programs, including healthcare, retirement, social welfare, education, energy, housing, and economic stimulus programs, none of which is related to the principal job of the IRS to collect revenue. At the same time, Congress passed even more legislation to pay for these tax spending programs. The result is that almost 30 years after the 1986 Tax Reform Act, our tax laws are a mess. Our tax laws have become so difficult for taxpayers to understand that 80% of all individual taxpayers now use paid consultants or software to prepare their income tax returns. Because of insufficient IRS resources in FY 2015, an average of more than 60 percent of the taxpayers who called the IRS for assistance in preparing their returns during the last filing season were unable to reach an IRS assistor, even after many taxpayers had remained on the telephone for more than 30 minutes before they were automatically cut off because of the volume of calls, which the reduced numbers of IRS assistors were unable to handle.

http://taxpol.blogspot.co.uk

Not really the most favourable scenario for the launch of global taxation initiatives.

It brings to mind the big shops and supermarkets that keep piling the goodies higher and higher, desperate to sell more stuff and make more money, while at the same time  closing tills, cutting staff, bringing in those poorly-programmed automated tills, and generally making it harder and harder for the potential customers to actually pay...

The IRS announced this in February 2015, due to significant budget cuts. It simply means for most folks sending tax returns to the IRS by Royal Mail or a private courier service, instead of mailing them to the Embassy.

The walk-in service was very limited in capacity while it was available.

Should a qualified US tax adviser in the UK be required, the IRS, as there are no legal requirements to have passed any exams before offering tax advice, the IRS offers a very helpful Directory which lists the only individuals who are qualified to advise on US tax matters; and which can be found here:
http://irs.treasury.gov/rpo/rpo.jsf. It is always prudent only to select an adviser from those who are qualified to advise on US tax matters and whose names are therefore published by the IRS. The IRS list is an excellent tool that is designed to help check if any adviser or proposed adviser has any tax credentials within the United States. Most UK based individuals will naturally also want to check that any proposed tax adviser is qualified with at least one professional accounting or tax institution in the UK as well as in the United States so that they know that the adviser is also adequately regulated in the UK.