We discussed last year around this time that Appeals was putting in place procedures that severely limited the opportunity for face to face meetings. Practitioners strongly opposed Appeals’ decision. While this past summer Appeals announced that it was piloting a web based virtual conference option, in the last few weeks leadership in Appeals has told practitioners that it is going to offer face to face in person conferences again for cases in field offices. To reflect the change, we understand that Appeals will soon publish interim guidance. While Appeals has decided not to offer virtual face to face meetings for the issues it handles in Service Centers it did not rule it out in the future if it could work out logistical barriers to doing so.
The decision to review and allow taxpayers the demonstrates that Appeals’ meetings with practitioner groups (such as the ABA Tax Section) was not for show and that despite losing 1/3rd of its staff since 2010 Appeals is committed to trying to work out cases in the most effective manner.
About Leslie Book
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