Tax Justice Warriors

In this episode, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I give thanks to so many people who support me and make my job easier.

This episode is a reflection on one year of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the impact President Biden's signature domestic legislative achievement has had on taxpayers and tax practitioners.

I discuss in the episode a major professional development: I am now a Professor of Practice and Director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic at Temple University Beasley School of Law! After five wonderful years at Philadelphia Legal Assistance Taxpayer Support Clinic, I am now pursuing this exciting opportunity. I am eager to represent clients across Pennsylvania, to supervise law students, and to teach tax law and IRS procedure.

This episode is a discussion of how workers can challenge their misclassification as independent contractors through the IRS SS-8 process. I discuss best practices for how practitioners can identify, address, and remedy misclassification on behalf of clients. I discuss the IRS procedures, including the accurate reporting of misclassification income as wages on tax returns, that individuals should know. Here are some important resources on worker misclassification: Philadelphia Legal Assistance page on misclassification Center for Urban Pedagogy-designed poster that I worked on regarding misclassification U.S. Department of Labor page on misclassification Presentation on misclassification that I did with attorney Rebecca Stavish IRS instructions on Form SS-8 My most recent Procedurally Taxing blog post on 26 U.S.C. 7434 (discussed in episode)

In this episode, I discussed what I learned at the ABA Tax Section May 2023 Meeting in Washington, D.C. I mentioned several important sessions I attended and how I had the chance to ask IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel a question during his closing plenary remarks. This episode also includes interviews I conducted, at the conference, with two great colleagues and mentors, Leslie Book and Mandi Matlock. They both generously agreed to sit down with me on the final day of the conference to discuss their careers and their perspectives. At Villanova Law, Professor Les Book, a nationally recognized scholar on tax procedure and coauthor of the Procedurally Taxing blog, teaches several tax courses and has experience in numerous roles there that include Director of the Federal Tax Clinic. I had the privilege of having Professor Book as my professor of Introduction to Federal Income Tax in my 3L spring semester at Villanova. Since then, he has helped me get to where I am today, including in receiving the ABA Tax Section Brunswick Public Service Fellowship. Professor Mandi Matlock, who recently served as Interim Director of the Federal Tax Clinic at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, has worked as a low income taxpayer clinic attorney at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid for over two decades. In the meantime, she became a nationally renowned expert on tax and consumer law matters as she was of counsel to the National Consumer Law Center and was a Local Taxpayer Advocate in Austin, among other roles.

In this episode, I break down the 2023 tax filing season as I offer reflections on how the $80 billion in additional funding for the IRS, from the Inflation Reduction Act, appears to have notably improved service for taxpayers and tax practitioners. I also delve into the history of the fedreal refund statute of limitations as it is an issue that became salient when the IRS announced that July 17, 2023 is the refund deadline for unfiled 2019 returns. I briefly also discuss the new IRS strategic operating plan (regarding how the IRS will use their new funding); you can read the plan here.

At the Annual Low Income Taxpayer Clinics Conference in Phoenix on December 7, 2022, I had the privilege of sitting down with Professor Keith Fogg, a mentor and colleague. Keith practiced at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel for over 30 years before he began an academic career in 2007 first running the Villanova Law Federal Tax Clinic and then running the Harvard Law Federal Tax Clinic from 2015 until his retirement in 2022. Additionally, Keith cofounded the Procedurally Taxing blog (for which I have written several articles) that he still helps run and his name is often associated with the American Bar Association Tax Section's Effectively Representing Your Client Before the IRS ("The Fogg Manual"), as he has edited the manual's 5th, 6th, and 7th editions (I had the privilege of authoring the worker classification chapter for the 8th edition).

At the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Taxation Midyear Meeting in San Diego on February 10, 2023, I sat down with one of my mentors, former National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, a tax law titan and legend thanks to her nearly two decades of service leading the Taxpayer Advocate Service, and ABA Christine A. Brunswick Fellow Anna Gooch, an esteemed colleague and dedicated practitioner. We discussed their work at the Center for Taxpayer Rights, an organization Olson founded after she retired as the National Taxpayer Advocate. For more information on the Brunswick Fellowship, a fellowship I benefited from in my first two years of practice, visit here.

Omeed sits down here with National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins at the 2023 Annual Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) Grantee Conference in Phoenix, Arizona on December 8, 2022. Collins spoke about the difficulties taxpayers and tax practitioners faced with the IRS in 2022. She also discussed how her office is working to address these problems. Since this interview was conducted, the LITC maximum grant, which was discussed here, has been temporarily increased from $100,000 to $200,000 per year, as described here on page 3 of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinics 2022 Program Report. Since this interview was recorded, Collins and her office also presented the National Taxpayer Advocate Annual Report to Congress, which identified several problems at the IRS and issued recommendations. You can read the National Taxpayer Advocate 2022 Annual Report to Congress here.

From William Schmidt- I am going from being a Clinic Director for Low Income Taxpayer Clinics to working for the Kansas City branch of the IRS Office of Chief Counsel (Small Business/Self-Employed) as a Tax Attorney. Today’s episode is a short one as I make my farewells. In September, I finished working for the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic and legal aid worlds, where I worked for 6.5 years. I worked for over 5 years for Kansas Legal Services and almost 1.5 years for Legal Aid of Western Missouri. I am going to miss working with others that advocate for those who truly need it. Both Kansas Legal Services and Legal Aid of Western Missouri are wonderful organizations that provide legal help to people in need. Through those organizations, I was able to provide tax, bankruptcy, consumer protection and other kinds of assistance through the years to low income taxpayers and other people in need. The Low Income Taxpayer Clinic community is a group that I will miss greatly. Gatherings from the local to the national level brought friendly, helpful people willing to talk tax and assist newcomers. I made several friends through the LITC, the ABA and in the IRS that were trying to connect taxpayers with the right assistance. I hope all of those organizations continue strong and you lend them support (if you're able) to bring help for those who need it. I believe my 6.5 years within the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic world, writing regularly for Procedurally Taxing, podcasting for 180 episodes, presenting at conferences, teaching as an adjunct professor and more have led me to taking on this new experience. I look forward to working with others I know within the IRS and learning about IRS systems - I think this will be an interesting adventure! The future of this podcast is a bit up in the air. I have asked a couple people to take over, but in the meantime it will be going on hiatus. Best wishes to you and thank you for listening!

If you have been following news from the Inflation Reduction Act, you probably heard news that the IRS received nearly $80 billion in funding over the next decade. There have been reactions of all kinds. In this episode, I look at how the funding is divided among the departments at the IRS. Some of the goals are examinations of high-income individuals, building back the staff from retirement and other departures, and modernizing the IRS computer systems. From there, I debunk some of the rumors regarding the IRS such as how they are building an army or arming their employees. The bottom line is that the IRS will follow the law and the rumors are false. The Fear Over IRS Funding (procedurallytaxing.com) Republican IRS fearmongering in Florida is getting scary (nbcnews.com) Opinion | Inside the IRS ‘Pipeline’ used to process tax returns - Washington Post

On this episode, an update on what is going on in Kansas City relating to tax issues. Also, a talk about the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and its funding of the IRS. At the time of recording, the Act had passed the Senate. At the time of posting, it has also passed the House and is expected to go to President Biden to sign into law in the next week.

A short episode about balancing my workload between supervision and managing the tax clinic. In order to balance the workload, it is necessary to reduce the number of cases and I talk about what I am doing to get there.

On May 12 through 14, 2022, the American Bar Association Section of Taxation held the 2022 May Tax Meeting. It was a hybrid meeting, the first in-person meeting for the Section since 2020. Portions of the meeting were also broadcast virtually. There was a large group gathered and it seemed that people were happy to be meeting in person again. William Schmidt attended the meeting and went to several of the committee presentations. This episode provides a recap of the events, including the panels that caused audience reactions, some Tax Court judges who attended, and a tip about getting food at a reception. William was also on a Tax Court Practice and Procedure panel on Collection Due Process cases in the U.S. Tax Court and he provides an update on how that went.

This episode has a whole variety of topics: Tune in to find out what William Schmidt and Andrew Belter have to say about those topics.

The Boechler case before the Supreme Court was previously discussed in episode 173. In the case, the question before the Supreme Court was whether the Tax Court correctly treated the deadline in this collection due process case as jurisdictional. Spoiler – the Supreme Court did decide in the taxpayer’s favor that the deadline was not jurisdictional and that equitable tolling could apply. The case has been remanded for a decision on whether equitable tolling does apply to the facts in the case. William Schmidt and Andrew Belter discuss the Boechler decision regarding potential change for future collection due process cases. This could be a big change, but the facts need to be right. Also, William is going to the ABA May Tax Meeting in Washington, D.C. that takes place May 12-14. On the 13th, he will be in the Court Procedure & Practice panel, “Update on Collection Due Process Cases in U.S. Tax Court and Related Issues” from 4:15 to 5:45 Eastern. The panel will discuss Boechler and other collection due process issues affecting the Tax Court. If you are there in person, say hi. If not, the meeting is also in a hybrid format so should be available virtually for some time after.

Welcome to a further discussion from William Schmidt (Legal Aid of Western Missouri) and Andrew Belter (Wisconsin JudiCare) on issues when calling the Practitioner Priority Service. This time, there are issues when representing a client who is listed as the secondary person on the tax return. Some of are clients are widows or divorced. Recently, the IRS has been given difficulty or wanted a power of attorney form for the decedent's estate signed by the widowed spouse in order to do anything on the account. That makes it difficult to ask for transcripts or get the account into currently not collectible status. Next, there are difficulties when transcripts are unavailable from the IRS but the representative does have access to the account. How to proceed? Also, when the clinic is contacted about criminal tax issues, what next? Since the LITC program does not focus on criminal tax, it is good to have a network for referring those cases. These topics and more are discussed in this episode. Thanks for tuning in!

Andrew Belter and William Schmidt talked through the different instances when to sign for clients on submissions to the IRS or the Tax Court. Some forms allow for either a taxpayer or their attorney to sign. However, clients don’t always get the forms to us or keep in contact close to the deadlines. What are some of the ethical considerations with those issues? Next, they compare notes on the LITC grant report. By now, clinics should have submitted their reports so our hosts talk about their efforts to put their reports together. Spreadsheets or other ways of tracking data like case software are quite useful!

Andrew Belter and William Schmidt discuss some recent topics of concern for Low Income Taxpayer Clinics. For one, Andrew brings up the difficulties with regard to reaching the IRS on the phones to get help for clients. Both Andrew and William talk about their recent attempts to find assistance for clients by calling the IRS. Then, William brings up the LITC grant report. That leads to a discussion of the difficulties in tracking data for the grant report and some tips in order to gather that data in an easier manner.

This week, Andrew Belter and William Schmidt look at some U.S. Tax Court topics. First, the case Boechler v. Commissioner is before the U.S. Supreme Court where they have heard oral arguments. In brief, an individual was a day late and missed the statutory deadline for a Collection Due Process hearing. The Tax Court ruled that there was a strict jurisdictional deadline. At issue before the Supreme Court is whether that deadline is jurisdictional or if equitable tolling can provide any relief. Second, there was a discussion on the ABA Section of Taxation's Pro Bono and Tax Clinics Committee listserv regarding Answers from IRS Chief Counsel in Tax Court. For years 1983-2007, the Tax Court did not require answers in S cases. We discuss the pros and cons of Answers, plus suggestions for what could replace them. Note: the phrase we couldn't remember was financial disability. William covered that topic way back in episode 55. To learn more, you can also look at Internal Revenue Code section 6511(h), Rev. Proc. 99-21 or IRS Publication 556, page 15.