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Preview of This Week’s ABA Tax Section Virtual Fall Meeting

Posted on Sep. 21, 2021

The ABA Section of Taxation kicked off its Fall Meeting virtually yesterday, with a plenary address by Thomas A. Barthold, Chief of Staff, Joint Committee on Taxation, followed by CLE programs from the Corporate Tax, Employee Benefits, State & Local Tax, and Transfer Pricing committees. A full week of programming follows, starting at 10:30 AM Eastern each day.

I will preview several sessions of interest in this post. The full program is available here, with the “schedule at a glance” here. To register, click here. (Registration is free for J.D. and LL.M. students, and $25 for LITC practitioners.)

Sessions are all held live, but registrants can also view sessions on replay – a major bonus of the virtual format for those of us who like to attend multiple committee meetings and for those with conflicting obligations.

The CLE sessions presented yesterday are already available for viewing, as is the plenary address, Rewriting the Internal Revenue Code in a Pandemic, presented by Thomas A. Barthold, Chief of Staff, Joint Committee on Taxation. Those curious about the budget reconciliation process, the Byrd rule, and what tax writing looks like on the ground will find it illuminating and thought-provoking. The plenary session also includes remarks by Julie Divola, Chair of the Tax Section, by Wells Hall, Chair-Elect, and by Caroline Ciraolo, Vice Chair of Membership, Diversity & Inclusion.  

Readers of this blog may be interested in the panels happening at the Administrative Practice, Individual & Family Taxation, Civil & Criminal Tax Penalties, Court Procedure & Practice, Diversity, Tax Collection, Bankruptcy and Workouts, and Teaching Tax Committees, as well as the Pro Bono and Tax Clinics Committee. There are too many excellent panels to highlight them all here. Several committees also offer informal networking events, and the week ends with the always excellent Women in Tax Forum. I encourage readers to check out the full program and the schedule at a glance.

The Civil & Criminal Tax Penalties committee offers two programs today, at 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. ET. Part One includes subcommittee reports on important developments, followed by a cutting-edge discussion evaluating taxpayers’ exposure from their participation in COVID relief programs. Part Two presents additional important developments, and a final panel on taxpayer privacy versus the public’s right to know at 3pm, at which PT contributor Nina Olson is speaking.

Taxpayer Privacy v. The Public’s Right to Know. In the wake of the Watergate scandal Congress substantially increased the statutory protections for taxpayer privacy, including imposing criminal penalties for various forms of unauthorized disclosure. At the same time, the First Amendment provides for freedom of the press and journalists are tasked with informing the public on matters of national import. Recently, high profile leaks of tax return information have led to blockbuster reports by ProPublica (on the tax strategies of high net-worth individuals) and the New York Times (on former President Trump’s tax returns), among others. This panel will explore what I.R.C. §§ 6103 and 7213 protect and prohibit, how these laws potentially interact with the First Amendment, how newsrooms think through the legal and ethical questions surrounding the publication of leaked or stolen information, and more.

Moderator: Benjamin Eisenstat, Caplin Drysdale, Washington, DC

Panelists: Jesse Eisinger, Senior Reporter & Editor, ProPublica, Washington, DC; Cara Griffith, President and CEO, Tax Analysts, Washington, DC; Nina Olson, Executive Director, Center for Taxpayer Rights, Washington, DC; Jenny Johnson Ware, McDermott Will & Emery, Chicago, IL

The Administrative Practice committee teams up with the Court Procedure & Practice committee to present three joint sessions tomorrow. The Current Developments program at 10:30 ET is sure to be of interest to PT readers. The second program at 12:30 p.m. ET concerns CIC Services, which PT has covered in many prior posts, several of which can be found here, with Les’s most recent post here. The third session focuses on John Doe Summonses and begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Current Developments. This panel will include a report from the Tax Court, as well as a discussion of significant IRS guidance and pending litigation.

Moderators: Kandyce Korotky, Covington & Burling LLP, Washington, DC; Michael J. Scarduzio, Jones Day, New York, NY

Panelists: The Honorable Emin Toro, U.S. Tax Court, Washington, DC; Richard G. Goldman, Deputy Associate Chief Counsel (Procedure & Administration) Office of Chief Counsel, IRS, Washington, DC; Natasha Goldvug, Department of Treasury, Washington, DC (Invited)

CIC Services, LLC v. Internal Revenue Service: Opening the Floodgates to Pre-Enforcement Tax Litigation? In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held that the Anti-Injunction Act’s bar on lawsuits for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collection of taxes did not bar a pre-enforcement challenge under the Administrative Procedure Act of an IRS reporting rule backed by tax penalties. This panel will discuss helpful background regarding the Anti-Injunction Act and Administrative Procedure Act; examine the facts of the case and key arguments presented to the Court by the parties and amici curiae; and debate the implications of the Court’s ruling for pre-enforcement lawsuits challenging the validity of Treasury and IRS rules and regulations.

Moderator: Antoinette Ellison, Jones Day, Atlanta, GA

Panelists: Bryan Camp, Texas Tech University School of Law, Lubbock, TX; Kristin Hickman, University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, MN; David W. Foster, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Washington, DC; Gil Rothenberg, former Chief of the Justice Department Tax Division’s Appellate Section, Adjunct Professor of Law at American University’s Washington College of Law, Washington, DC

Also on Wednesday afternoon, Teaching Taxation presents an important program on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in tax at 12:30.

Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Tax: Ideas and Resources for Mentoring Diverse Students and Leading Discussions of DEI in Tax. (Recommended for Young Lawyers) “We will all profit from a more diverse, inclusive society, understanding, accommodating, even celebrating our differences, while pulling together for the common good.” Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “Diversity requires commitment. Achieving the superior performance diversity can produce needs further action − most notably, a commitment to develop a culture of inclusion. People do not just need to be different, they need to be fully involved and feel their voices are heard.” Alain Dehaze. This panel will document the need for greater diversity in the field of tax law − in practice and in Academia – and share ideas to promote this goal, with a focus on law students and recent law school graduates. The panelists will (1) provide information about existing programs to promote DEI in the tax profession, (2) discuss ways to build the tax profession pipeline, to recruit and retain diverse tax attorneys, and to provide strong platforms for professional success, and (3) solicit audience participation and ideas for new initiatives.

Moderator: Katie Pratt, Professor of Law and Sayre Macneil Fellow, LMU Loyola Law School Los Angeles

Panelists: Professor Alice Abreu, Honorable Nelson A. Diaz Professor of Law and Director, Temple Center for Tax Law and Public Policy, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Philadelphia, PA; Caroline D. Ciraolo, Kostelanetz & Fink, LLP, inaugural Vice Chair, Membership, Diversity, and Inclusion, Tax Section Council, ABA; Professor Steven Dean, Brooklyn Law School; Honorable Juan F. Vasquez, US Tax Court; Lany L. Villalobos, Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, Assistant Secretary, Tax Section Council, American Bar Association (2021-2022), Immediate Past-Chair, ABA Tax Section Diversity Committee

Wednesday afternoon’s programming continues with a Diversity Committee session on return preparer fraud at 2:30 p.m.

Protecting Vulnerable Taxpayers Against Tax Preparer Fraud. (Recommended for Young Lawyers) Many taxpayers turn to paid tax preparers to help them navigate the tax code and accurately prepare their tax returns each year. While most tax return preparers are qualified and professional, unscrupulous tax return preparers do exist and can cause financial hardship and legal problems for the taxpayers who hire them. This is especially true for low-income taxpayers and other vulnerable communities. This panel will provide a comprehensive discussion of tax return preparer fraud and how to help those who have been taken advantage of by unethical tax return preparers. Panelists will identify resources to report tax return preparer fraud and what options are available to taxpayers to help remedy the damage caused by the tax return preparer. Lastly, the panel will discuss regulation of tax return preparers and what steps the tax community can take to reduce the risk of tax return preparer fraud.

Moderator: Shahin Rahimi, Legal Aid Society of San Diego, San Diego, CA

Panelists: Hana M. Boruchov, Boruchov Gabovich & Associates PC, New York, NY; Omeed Firouzi, Philadelphia Legal Assistance, Philadelphia, PA; William Schmidt, Legal Aid of Western Missouri, Kansas City, MO; Patrick W. Thomas, Frost Brown Todd, Louisville, KY

The Pro Bono and Tax Clinics committee presents two programs on Thursday morning. The first panel highlights administrative barriers that often prevent low-income taxpayers from receiving tax benefits to which they are entitled. This discussion is extremely timely as Congress debates whether to extend advance CTC payments.  We have covered problems with the IRS identity verification program here and here. Nina Olson wrote about problems with customer service and return processing recently here.

The second panel on determining a taxpayer’s “last known address” under the Code is a topic that has also prompted many PT posts.

Barriers to Tax Benefits: Resolving ID Verification and Payment Delivery Issues. (Recommended for Young Lawyers) The CARES Act and American Rescue Plan Act expanded numerous important benefits for low-and-middle income individuals delivered through the tax code -for example, the Advance Child Tax Credit and the Recovery Rebate credits. This panel will discuss numerous barriers that have emerged in getting those payments to the rightful recipients including ID verification issues, payments to the unbanked, and working with incarcerated individuals and the housing insecure.

Moderator: Anthony Marqusee, Philadelphia Legal Assistance, Philadelphia, PA

Panelists: Laura Baek, IRS TAS, Washington, DC; Barbara Heggie, Low-Income Taxpayer Project, Concord, NH; Nanette Downing, Director of Identity Assurance, IRS, Washington, DC; Denise Davis, Director of Return Integrity Verification Program Management, Atlanta, GA

A Simple Question with a Complicated Answer: Determining a Taxpayer’s Last Known Address. (Recommended for Young Lawyers) Many IRS notices are required to be mailed to a taxpayer’s “last known address.” Failure of the IRS to properly mail such notices can carry profound consequences. Determining exactly what a taxpayer’s last known address should be, however, is increasingly contentious. This panel will review the regulatory and subregulatory guidance on what is required for a taxpayer to effectively change their address with the IRS. It will also discuss how the recent 3rd Circuit decision Gregory v. Commissioner and the online IRS “portals” may affect this area of law.

Moderator: Briana Fehringer, Partner at Anderson & Jahde, P.C., Littleton, CO

Panelists: Christopher Valvardi, IRS Office of Chief Counsel (P&A), Washington, DC; Audrey Patten, Harvard Legal Services Center, Jamaica Plain, MA

Speaking of IRS customer service, on Friday the Individual & Family Taxation Committee presents a two-part session featuring IRS Wage & Investment Commissioner Ken Corbin.

The Service of the Service: Interacting Now and in the Future. (Recommended for Young Lawyers) This two-part panel will examine the current state of IRS customer service and how technology may transform how the IRS interacts with taxpayers. Part one will focus on common scenarios that taxpayers, practitioners, and IRS personnel have faced with the continuing backlog of correspondence and return processing. The panel will focus on how practitioners have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to resolve these problems. It will bring together viewpoints from private practice, tax clinicians, the Taxpayer Advocate, and the IRS. Part two will focus on strategic IRS initiatives to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics to automate core components of customer service – some already in testing. The panel will discuss the IRS’s concierge service initiative, which will be AI-driven with some IRS representative collateral support, and how the initiative interacts with the broader Taxpayer First Act implementation programs. The panel will explore issues of equity in accessing responsive service by different taxpayer populations.

Part One Panelists: Kenneth C. Corbin, Commissioner, Wage & Income Division, IRS, Atlanta, GA; Andrew VanSingel, Local Taxpayer Advocate, IRS, Chicago, IL; Olena Ruth, Ruth Tax Law, Denver, CO; W. Edward (Ted) Afield, Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Philip C. Cook Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

Part Two: Joshua Beck, Attorney Advisor, Taxpayer Advocate Service, Des Moines, IA; Leigh Osofsky, Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law, Chapel Hill, NC; Joshua Blank, Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law, Irvine, CA; W. Edward (Ted) Afield, Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Philip C. Cook Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

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