TAS Leadership
The National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) leads the Taxpayer Advocate Service and is appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, with consultation from the IRS Commissioner and IRS Oversight Board. By law, the NTA reports directly to the IRS Commissioner.
NTA Nina Olson
Nina E. Olson is the National Taxpayer Advocate and serves as an advocate for taxpayers to the IRS and Congress. She leads the Taxpayer Advocate Service, a nationwide organization of approximately 2,000 taxpayer advocates who help U.S. taxpayers resolve problems and work with the IRS to correct systemic and procedural problems.
The National Taxpayer Advocate is required by statute to submit two annual reports to Congress. The first report identifies the objectives of the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate. The second report includes a discussion of the top 20 problems that taxpayers face in their dealings with the IRS and makes administrative and legislative recommendations to protect taxpayer rights and mitigate taxpayer problems. The National Taxpayer Advocate is also responsible for oversight of the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP) and the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) program.
Nina's work as the "voice of the taxpayers" at the IRS has won national acclaim. The non-profit Tax Foundation presented her with its Public Sector Distinguished Service Award in 2007. Accounting Today magazine has named her one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the accounting profession each year since 2004. In January 2005, Money magazine named her one of the 12 "Class Acts of 2004."
Nina is an attorney licensed in Virginia and North Carolina. She was the founder and Executive Director of The Community Tax Law Project, the first independent § 501(c)(3) low income taxpayer clinic in the United States. The Community Tax Law Project provides free legal services to Virginia low income taxpayers in federal, state, and local tax disputes.
Prior to her appointment as the National Taxpayer Advocate in January 2001, Nina maintained a private law practice, concentrating in tax controversy representation. From 1975 until 1991, she owned and operated Accounting, Tax & Information Services, a tax planning and preparation firm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Nina served as the chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Taxation’s Low Income Taxpayers Committee as well as the Pro Se/Pro Bono Task Force of the ABA Tax Section's Court Procedure Committee. Nina is the 1999 recipient of both the Virginia Bar Association's Pro Bono Publico Award and the City of Richmond Bar Association's Pro Bono Award.
Nina graduated from Bryn Mawr College cum laude with an A.B. in Fine Arts. She received her J.D. cum laude from North Carolina Central School of Law and her Masters of Law in Taxation, with distinction, from Georgetown University Law Center. Nina has served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown and several other law schools.
