As tax professionals we are continuing taking education to enhance our skills.
From time to time we are asked about what classes we take. Recently we attended
a Town Hall meeting held by the IRS. Here are the topics of that day.
Examination (Audit) Group Organization - Escalation Contacts (1 hour)
Organizational changes in the Bay Area Examination and how to handle escalation issues should the audit not be handled correctly.
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Examination (Audit) Procedural Changes (1 hour)
What changes are happening to the audit process, particularly with field audits of businesses.
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Reducing Tax Burden (1 hour)
Communicating what types of issues are the focus of the Taxpayer Burden Reduction organization.
Acknowledging previous "wins" of that team, and what issues constitute their current working focus.
Helping us to understand the types of issues they will take on, and how to submit issues to them.
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Research tools on IRS.gov (1 hour)
There are numerous research tools in the Tax Professional section, designed for the types of research generally done by tax professionals. This session reviewed each of those.
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Letter Audits from the Automatic Underreporting Program (CP2000 letters) (1 hour)
Of the 132 million returns filed, there is over $16B in missing income.
This group operates the computer matching system that matches income information reports (e.g., 1099s) to income reported on tax returns.
Any mismatch leads to a letter to the taxpayer to either explain the discrepency or to pay the additional tax.
The session dealt with numerous processing problems that can arise, including mail routing issues at the Fresno processing center and what we as tax professionals can do to minimize those delayed responses.
Information was provided on a new soft notice program that will begin in 2009.
There was information on a common real estate practice that constitutes 1099s being issued illegally.
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Working with the Taxpayer Advocate Service (1 hour)
This independent organization within the IRS is intended to address process problems with the IRS.
This is the group that a Tax Professional can turn to when there are inappropriate delays on an audit process.
In limited cases they are able to help when a taxpayer is suffering from economic harm (e.g., collection activities preclude the ability to secure necessary medical services) or significant cost (i.e., inefficient processing of an audit by the IRS is leading to excessive fees for professional repreesntation).
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Issues from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (1 hour)
New immigration enforcement issues can affect employers who are being serviced by Tax Professionals.
This session spoke to the potential issue, resources for information on the topic, and how TAx Professionals can proceed to assist their clients.
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