(Bloomberg) — Congress has handed the IRS more work and less funding, leading to a decline in taxpayer service, the tax agency's independent in-house critic said in a new report.

The agency's inability to provide clear, timely assistance to the public is the most serious issue facing the nation's taxpayers, according to the annual report released today by Nina Olson, the national taxpayer advocate.

"Many taxpayers will be frustrated, some will make potentially costly mistakes, others will incur higher compliance costs when forced to seek information and assistance from tax professionals that the IRS previously provided for free," Olson wrote in the report. "And still others will simply give up and not file returns at all."

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