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Tax Justice Warriors is a podcast that focuses on tax controversy, Low Income Taxpayer Clincs (LITCs), educating the public, news, and interviews about taxes. The host is Omeed Firouzi, a practice professor and director of the low income taxpayer clinic at Temple University Beasley School of Law. The producer is Zac Harvey.
Episodes
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
Episode 179: ABA 2022 May Tax Meeting Followup
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
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.
Friday May 20, 2022
Episode 178: OIC Updates and Other Tax Topics
Friday May 20, 2022
Friday May 20, 2022
This episode has a whole variety of topics:
- The offer in compromise forms are now updated – what about the grace period to transition to sending the new forms to the IRS? How many years of tax returns need to be submitted for the taxpayer to be compliant?
- The local standards for 2022 have been released. These are to be used for offers in compromise and to submit for a client to be in currently not collectible status. What else? See below.
- Talking about low-income taxpayers dealing with stock reporting and tax audits.
- How to mark a duplicate tax return sent to the IRS?
- Talking about expenses and income reporting on an innocent spouse request submission.
- A reminder that the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic grant application or Non-Competing Continuation deadlines are coming up!
- Last, this will be Andrew Belter’s final episode as he makes a career change!
Tune in to find out what William Schmidt and Andrew Belter have to say about those topics.
Friday May 06, 2022
Episode 177: Boechler Decision and ABA May Tax CDP Presentation
Friday May 06, 2022
Friday May 06, 2022
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.
Friday Apr 22, 2022
Episode 176: PPS Issues and Criminal Tax Referrals
Friday Apr 22, 2022
Friday Apr 22, 2022
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!
Friday Apr 08, 2022
Episode 175: Signing for Clients and More LITC Grant Report Talk
Friday Apr 08, 2022
Friday Apr 08, 2022
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!
Friday Mar 25, 2022
Episode 174: PPS and the LITC Grant Report
Friday Mar 25, 2022
Friday Mar 25, 2022
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.
Friday Mar 11, 2022
Episode 173: Tax Court - Boechler and IRS Chief Counsel Answers
Friday Mar 11, 2022
Friday Mar 11, 2022
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.
Friday Feb 25, 2022
Episode 172: John Gilmore Interview on ID.me
Friday Feb 25, 2022
Friday Feb 25, 2022
ID.me is a recent platform that the IRS was using as an online identity verification process for taxpayers to access self-help tools. To verify their identity with ID.me, taxpayers needed to provide a photo of an identity document such as a driver's license, state ID or passport. They also needed to take a selfie with a smartphone or a computer with a webcam. Once their identity had been verified, the were able to access IRS online services.
Various people protested to Congress and that reached the IRS. On February 7, 2022, the IRS announced it would transition away from using ID.me and its facial recognition tools to help authenticate people creating new online accounts. The transition was to occur over the following weeks in order to prevent larger disruptions to taxpayers during filing season.
During the transition, the IRS stated they would quickly develop and bring online an additional authentication process that does not involve facial recognition. The IRS stated they would “continue to work with its cross-government partners to develop authentication methods that protect taxpayer data and ensure broad access to online tools.”
On this episode, Andrew Belter and William Schmidt spoke with John Gilmore, Head of Research at Abine/DeleteMe. The conversation started with how ID.me came to be used by the federal government and John’s concerns regarding ID.me, such as whether they are regulated and what they do with their data. We discussed the IRS pivot away from facial recognition and that other state and federal government agencies are still using ID.me. From there, we look at how this impacts low income taxpayers such as the complaints for people of color using facial recognition and how low income taxpayers do not have access to technology.
Friday Feb 11, 2022
Episode 171: 2022 ABA Section of Taxation Midyear Meeting
Friday Feb 11, 2022
Friday Feb 11, 2022
Well, before we started we didn’t think we had anything to talk about! Andrew Belter (Wisconsin Judicare) and William Schmidt (Legal Aid of Western Missouri) caught up on recent tax news as the tax season is underway. Access to transcripts with the CAF Unit and IRS budget restrictions from Congress are some of the topics.
The main portion of this episode is a discussion of the ABA 2022 Midyear Tax Meeting. It was a virtual conference that took place from January 31 to February 4. Hopefully we provided some insights in our preview of the event. There are discussions that took place on topics such as diversity and ethics. Updates on current events from the National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins, the IRS and the U.S. Tax Court. Discussions of litigation that ranged from the U.S. Tax Court to the U.S. Supreme Court. There are a variety of topics that should interest tax practitioners at American Bar Association Section of Taxation events.
Since the event has already happened, you have not necessarily missed out. For American Bar Association members, the recordings are still available for 90 days after the meeting. It is a bargain for LITC personnel to access the entire conference for $25.
The meeting was quite informative and it is always wonderful to see and speak with other tax professionals, even when it is all online.
Friday Jan 28, 2022
Episode 170: State and Federal Tax Issues
Friday Jan 28, 2022
Friday Jan 28, 2022
Welcome to the tax filing season! Andrew Belter and William Schmidt start with a discussion of reconciling the child tax credit with Letter 6419. From there, we turn to differences between state and federal taxes. For one, can you still find paper copies of your state tax forms at your local public library? Who is faster at processing paper tax returns, the IRS or the state? Does your state perform audits independently of the IRS? Does the state follow IRS decisions regarding innocent spouse? Is there a taxpayer advocate in your state? What does that person do?
Andrew and William talk through these questions based on their state tax experience.