Open Government Initiative Soliciting Ideas for Reform from Citizens

There's a new Web site where citizens can suggest ideas to make the federal government more transparent, more responsive, and more efficient. The White House is asking for citizens to submit their ideas for government reform on the Open Government Initiative site. This site for brainstorming, where citizens can suggest ideas and other people can vote for or against those ideas, and offer comments and feedback. According to the White House blog, "the most compelling ideas from the brainstorming" submissions will be vetted on June 3rd, 2009, with recommendations and feedback solicited starting June 15th. (Coincidentally, perhaps, the day that the second quarter estimated tax payments are due.)

Three suggestions have already been proposed concerning reform of the IRS and our tax laws. I myself submitted a suggestion repeating the recommendations made by Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson in her previous reports for the IRS to develop a "my IRS account" portal for taxpayers to log-in and view their tax information. (This feature has also been profiled at the IRStaxprep blog.) By having the IRS push data to us, we could spend on time on making sure our taxes are computed correctly instead of worrying that we've missed a W-2 or other tax document. (Ms. Olson revealed that this account feature has been put on hold indefinitely in her 2008 report to Congress, page 172.)

Other suggestions for IRS reform focus making the tax laws written in plain English, so that all taxpayers can read the laws for themselves and making IRS auditors easily accessible so that taxpayers can obtain answers to their specific tax issues.

If you have a suggestion for reforming the IRS, or other parts of the federal government, I encourage you to speak up. These are our tax dollars at work, and so we might as well make sure our money is being used as efficiently as possible. And if you do make a suggestion, leave a comment so we can all vote on your ideas.

Thanks to Craig Newmark (founder of Craigslist) for alerting us to this Web site through his City Brights blog post.)