The mission of TAS is to help taxpayers resolve problems with the IRS and recommend changes to prevent the problems. When constituents contact their congressional office for help with tax matter, TAS works closely with the congressional staff member to assist in the resolution.

In this case, the taxpayer was living overseas where their foreign bank had changed its policy for cashing checks, and consequently the taxpayer could not cash his IRS refund check. The taxpayer returned the refund check to the IRS but wasn’t successful in getting it reissued as a direct deposit. The taxpayer then contacted his congressional office for help.

The taxpayer’s congressional representative contacted TAS for assistance in getting the taxpayer’s tax refund reissued to a bank account. The case advocate quickly determined that the usual method for reissuing a check as a direct deposit wouldn’t work because the foreign bank and routing account numbers weren’t universal – but the case advocate did not give up. The case advocate began an extensive research and investigative process and determined that an alternative approach of a wire deposit could be used in this situation. It took just one day after discovering this process for the taxpayer to successfully receive the refund in his bank account.