The Tax Section of the ABA is holding its midyear meeting this week in a virtual format. It’s less expensive to register in this format and certainly less costly in time and money to attend. The program kicks off this afternoon with a New Attendee Orientation Reception at 4:00 p.m. and an opening plenary Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. EST, featuring Mark J. Mazur, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Tax Policy, US Department of the Treasury, and Janice Mays, Managing Director, Tax Policy Services at PwC US, exploring tax changes expected from the new administration and the new Congress.
The meeting has several panels addressing issues recently discussed in PT, which are detailed below. In addition, readers of this blog should find interesting the panels happening at the Administrative Practice, Individual & Family Taxation, Court Procedure & Practice, Tax Collection, Bankruptcy and Workouts Committee, and Teaching Tax Committees. There are too many excellent panels to highlight here. The full program is here, and the schedule at a glance is here.
On Thursday morning January 28, the Pro Bono & Tax Clinics committee is presenting two sessions on the EIP, which we have covered extensively on PT. One of the panels includes Yaman Salahi who was part of the team of attorneys representing incarcerated individuals who won their case to receive the EIP in the fall of 2020.
EIP for Incarcerated Individuals. Panelists will provide lessons learned and an update on the latest from the Scholl et al. v. Mnuchin class action lawsuit ordering that the EIP be disbursed to incarcerated individuals. They will also discuss the process by which inmates may claim the payment, any systemic issues that have arisen since the court ordered that the payments be made, and the ways in which the pro bono and tax clinic community can be helpful.
Panelists: Yaman Salahi, Partner, Leiff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, San Francisco, CA; Amy Spivey, Visiting Assistant Professor & LITC Director, UC Hastings Law School, San Francisco, CA
Caleb Smith is a speaker on the second panel, which has a broader focus. Les recently blogged on key differences between the advance payment of the EIP and the recovery rebate credit here.
The National Taxpayer Advocate, EIP Issues and What to Expect in Filing Season. The National Taxpayer Advocate will provide a review of the 2020 Annual Report to Congress, and panelists will troubleshoot some of the most common problems likely to arise with EIPs during the filing season. Topics will include assisting those that the IRS thinks have received the EIP already but never actually did, misdirected deposits, or issues with joint bank accounts and domestic violence. Additionally, the panel will address questions concerning individuals that did receive payments but shouldn’t have and whether IRS can recoup such payments under either assessment/deficiency procedures, as erroneous refunds, or under general offset authority.
Moderator: Terri Morris, Attorney and Christine Brunswick Fellow at Community Tax Law Project, Richmond, VA
Panelists: Erin Collins, IRS National Taxpayer Advocate, Washington, D.C.; Dietra Grant, IRS Wage & Income, Atlanta GA; Nancy Rossner, Attorney Community Tax Law Project, Richmond, VA; Caleb Smith, Clinical Professor University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, MN
If you enjoyed the blog post on premature assessments of Tax Court cases or the mailing of 12 million notices weeks or months after the dates on the notices (and its unfortunate recurrence), you could attend a panel on which Keith will participate, for the Tax Collection, Bankruptcy and Workouts Committee.
The Impact of Late-Issued Collection Notices in Bankruptcy and Tax-Related District Court Litigation. After the expiration of the hiatus on collection and enforcement under the People First Initiative, the IRS mailed millions of notices with expired action and response dates. In addition, the inability of the IRS and the Tax Court to process mail during the COVID emergency caused the IRS to make premature assessments of some tax liabilities. The panelists will discuss the effect of misdated notices and premature assessments on the validity of assessments and the effect of these notices and assessments in bankruptcy and tax-related collection litigation commenced by the U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division.
Panelists: Janice Feldman, Volunteer Attorney at the Federal Tax Clinic, Harvard Law School, Jamaica Plain, MA; Professor Keith Fogg, Director of the Federal Tax Clinic, Harvard Law School, Jamaica Plain, MA; A. Lavar Taylor, Law Offices of A. Lavar Taylor, Santa Ana, CA
On Thursday afternoon, guest blogger Omeed Firouzi moderates a panel for the Diversity Committee which should be of interest to all tax lawyers.
Inequality, Race, & Tax: Systems, Laws, & Enforcement. The United States exhibits wider disparities of wealth than any other major developed nation. Over the past five decades, wealth has increasingly concentrated among the highest-income households. These households are disproportionately White and male. In 2018, three White men held aggregate wealth greater than the aggregate wealth of one-half of all Americans. The median White household has 41 times more wealth than the median Black household and 22 times more wealth than the median Latinx household. On average women earn less than men in all industries. At the intersection of race and gender, the gaps are even more shocking. Women of color are disproportionately poor, suffering poverty rates of 21.4% Black women, 18.7% Latinas, and 22.8% Native American women, as compared to 7% for White men. Moreover, education, work, marriage and other attributes that fall under the rubric of “personal responsibility” do not remedy these disparities. White heads of household without a high school education have on average more wealth than college educated Black heads of households. White households with a single white parent have more than twice the net worth of two parent Black households. White households with an unemployed head have a higher net worth than Black households with a head who is working full time. In short, something must be done to reverse these racist trends. Tax and spending systems are the most profound fiscal tools under the government’s control. Many aspects of United States tax systems worsen inequality, especially the racial wealth gap. Three nationally recognized expert panelists will provide a deep dive into institutional racism in tax systems. The panel will begin with a broad overview, focusing on racism in tax systems targeting Black and Latinx taxpayers. The focus will then narrow further, looking at the disparate impact of taxpayer audits on communities of color. Finally, panelists will suggest concrete strategies to start to remedy these wrongs.
Moderator: Omeed Firouzi, Staff Attorney, Philadelphia Legal Assistance
Panelists: Donnie Charleston, Director, Public Policy & Advocacy, E Pluribus Unum; Francine Lipman, William S. Boyd Professor of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Jackie Vimo, Economic Policy Justice Analyst, National Immigration Law Center
Finally, on Friday Les and Nina are participating in a session at the Individual & Family Taxation Committee meeting, which promises a fascinating and important discussion of how best to address tax underreporting by individuals.
Fresh Look at an Old Problem: Reducing the Tax Gap. The tax gap, or the difference between total taxes owed and taxes paid on time, is a longstanding problem. This panel highlights recent proposals to reduce the tax gap, with a focus on the underreporting tax gap associated with individuals.
Moderator: Leslie Book, Professor of Law, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, Villanova, PA
Panelists: Mark J. Mazur, who was recently returned to Treasury as Deputy Assistant Secretary, Tax Policy, (he was previously the Director at the Tax Policy Center, Urban Institute, Washington DC); Nina Olson, Executive Director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, Washington DC; Charles O. Rossotti, Senior Advisor, Carlyle Group, Washington DC; Natasha Sarin, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School & Assistant Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA