Cauble: Non-Experts' Impressions Of Informal Tax Guidance

Emily Cauble (Wisconsin; Google Scholar), Non-Experts' Impressions of Informal Tax Guidance, 76 Syracuse L. Rev. __ (2026):

I conducted a survey of 2,191 U.S. adults designed to gain insight into the impact that statements in informal IRS guidance have on non-expert taxpayers. The survey also examines whether respondents form different impressions when they receive guidance delivered by an automated tool rather than guidance contained in IRS publications. This Article reports that survey's results. 

The results demonstrate that statements included in actual IRS informal guidance are susceptible to interpretations that are inconsistent with actual tax law. In addition, in many cases, the delivery channel affects the impressions that respondents form. These results underscore the need for reforms that mitigate the harms that follow when users interpret guidance inconsistently with tax law. In addition, while some of the participants' misconceptions were predictable, others differed from what legal experts might anticipate. This finding suggests a potential role for studying how non-experts interpret guidance " to supplement analysis of technical measures of its readability and reliance on expert review. Of course, carrying out this additional type of review would require additional resources, and, therefore, the need for additional review represents one more reason why the current steps to scale back IRS funding are detrimental. This study contributes to an existing body of literature that examines non-experts' beliefs about law. Its focus is on how non-experts interpret guidance designed for non-experts. It concentrates on the tax context because, given taxpayers' need to report their own tax liability, non-experts' understanding of informal tax guidance is particularly important. However, tax law is certainly not the only area in which knowing more about how non-experts understand informal guidance could prove useful.

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