Blind Taxpayers Sue the IRS
July 25, 2019
Print-only Notices Result in Financial Penalties for Blind Taxpayers
Berkeley businesswoman Karen Rose, who is blind, was about to throw away what she thought was junk mail when a friend noticed that it was from the IRS. It turned out to be a second notice that she owed nearly $25,000 in additional taxes. When she contacted the agency, she learned that she had also incurred an additional $1,500 in interest and penalties because she hadn’t responded to the first notice. A representative from an IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center helped her appeal the penalties when Karen explained that she couldn’t read the printed letters. The appeal was denied. She has since received a check for $77 from the agency but has heard nothing about the request she made to receive future notices in Braille or another alternative format.
Ms. Rose and two other blind taxpayers who had similar experiences, along with the National Federation of the Blind, are suing the IRS for not providing notices in alternative formats such as Braille, large print, electronic documents, or audio. They are represented by attorneys from the Baltimore law firm of Brown, Goldstein & Levy and Disability Rights [...]