In this brief post I discuss informal advice relating to abatement requests and powers of attorney, and also flag the IRS’s release earlier this month of a new Form 2848 that reflects developments in light of Loving.
ABATEMENT REQUESTS
A recent IRS email advice discusses requests for abatement, a procedure that I found confusing when I first began working in a tax clinic many years ago. The confusion is because Section 6404(b) states no claim for abatement shall be filed by a taxpayer for any income, estate, or gift tax assessment. Despite that statutory limitation, the Internal Revenue Manual states that taxpayers can submit a request for an abatement for income, estate and gift tax assessments, and that the Service will consider those requests. To that end, see for example IRM 25.6.1.10.1(2) Requests for Abatement. One can use an amended return for these purposes.
What happens if the statute of limitations on assessment for the year has closed? There is no sol when it comes to abatement requests, (contrasted with the refund sol). In the email advice, the IRS states, however, that sol on assessment is not irrelevant, as the IRS is supposed to take “special care” on those abatement requests because if the IRS abates an assessment (or part thereof) and the sol on assessment has expired, then the IRS is out of luck because the tax cannot be reassessed.
read more...POA-CAN A REP HOLD ON TO A SIGNED POA?
A recent IRS memo considered another issue worthy of note, namely whether a representative can submit electronically a POA Form 2848 without a client’s signature. We recently discussed POAs in a post Who Can/Must Sign the POA Form by Keith regarding the ability of one rep to sign on behalf of another, where IRS said the reps must sign individually. Similarly, in this PMTA, the IRS said it must receive the POA that is signed by both the client and the rep in order for it to be effective. The rep had stated that it had the client’s signature on file, but wanted to submit the POA electronically and keep the signed POA in its records and submit to IRS upon request. IRS’s Procedural Rule 601.504(c)(4) allows for IRS to receive a copy or a fax of the signed POA, but as per the PMTA the IRS will not allow the unsigned 2848, stating that such a procedure could facilitate identity theft and lead to unauthorized disclosures.
IRS RELEASES NEW POA
Earlier this month, IRS released a new version of the Power of Attorney, as well as instructions that highlight the differences between the new 2848 and the prior version. The main difference relates to the limited representation rights for unenrolled preparers and other post-Loving developments such as removing the designation “registered tax return preparer.”
Here is a bit more on the limited representation rights, as this I believe is a major change and reflects the IRS approach of offering a big carrot to those preparers who opt in to the voluntary testing and education program (IRS description of the Annual Filing Season Program is here). Prior to this filing season, all unenrolled preparers had limited representation rights before the IRS relating to an examination of the taxable period covered by the tax return they prepared and signed. As I discussed earlier this year in Some More Updates on IRS Annual Filing Season Program, effective for returns filed as of January 1, 2016, in order for an unenrolled preparer to have those limited representation rights, the PTIN-wielding unenrolled return preparer must also have (1) a valid Annual Filing Season Program Record of Completion for the calendar year in which the tax return or claim for refund was prepared and signed; and (2) a valid Annual Filing Season Program Record of Completion for the year or years in which the representation occurs. Absent the record of completions, the preparer wishing to get information (but not actually represent in an exam) will have to use a Form 8821 which will allow inspection and retrieval of information only.
I am not familiar with data on how often unenrolled preparers in the past had used these rights, but I suspect the ability to communicate and represent in the examination process would be a powerful benefit that an informed consumer would want in a preparer.
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Thank-you for your timely information as we tax professionals prepare for filing season.
Some of the new procedures appear to be procedures that were used in the past but fell by the wayside. I have been in private practice for 8 years and observed some unethical behavior as a Enrolled Agent in regards to POA issues as well as identity theft issues .
It took longer than it should have for me to realize that the situation where you would have abatement after the statute expiration date, is where there is unpaid tax, or (I think) tax paid within the last two years. Of course that happens all the time, but now I know that it’s not because the taxpayers filed a claim, but because they made a request. Following the Bryan Camp Rule, could we call it neither a claim nor a request, but simply a banana?