Tax Justice Warriors

This episode is an introduction to the U.S. Tax Court – information about the Court itself, things to think about when filing a petition with the Tax Court (location, filing fee/waiver, filling out the petition, s case versus regular case), the calendar call, and designated orders from the Court.

This episode focuses on the big picture view of “the new normal for taxes” since there have been several changes connected to the coronavirus pandemic.  Topics discussed include missed opportunities and new opportunities related to the ABA May Tax Meeting, Tax Court, free webinars, Virtual Settlement Days, and more.

Some tips:

• If there were issues with the economic impact payment, some of the potential assistance I know about are the phone number 1-800-919-9835 or using IRS form 3911. Otherwise, the main advice I have is to file a 2019 tax return separately if you need to show on record that you are no longer with the spouse from a joint return so that you can potentially receive the payment as a refund on the 2020 tax return.

• The University of San Diego Law School has for free virtually their 5^th Annual Tax Controversy Institute on July 17 looking at tax controversy work during COVID-19, the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility, and IRS Fraud Enforcement and Criminal Investigations.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/5th-annual-usd-school-of-law-rjs-law-tax-controversy-institute-tickets-93194377893

• Kostelanetz and Fink is holding the 12^th Annual NYU Tax Controversy Forum for free virtually on June 18 and 19. By the time this airs, those dates may have passed, but they are available through CPAcademy, which will be rebroadcasting those webinars during the summer.  The webinars will have updates from the heads of several departments at the IRS such as the new Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins and new head of the Independent Office of Appeals Andy Keyso.  They will also have presentations on penalties, fraud, Tax Collections, and enforcement.

https://kflawtaxforum.com/agenda/

• ABA Virtual May Tax Meeting is June 10 through July 30. 19 webinars over 6 weeks covering ethics, Tax Court, international tax, corporate tax (19 or so committees).  Rates range from free to $500 for the entire series, depending on your category.
• June 10: Tax Bridge to Practice1:00pm - 4:05pm
• June 11: Corporate Tax/Affiliated & Related Corporations1:00pm - 2:35pm
• June 17: Tax Accounting1:00pm - 3:00pm
• June 18: Closely Held Businesses1:00pm - 2:45pm
• June 24: S Corporations1:00 - 4:00pm
• June 25: State & Local Taxes1:00pm - 3:00pm
• July 1: International Day 112:00pm - 1:30pm
• July 2: International Day 21:00pm - 4:00pm
• July 8: Real Estate & Partnerships & LLCs1:00pm - 4:00pm
• July 9: Estate and Gift Taxes1:00pm - 4:00pm
• July 14: Civil & Criminal Tax Penalties1:00pm - 4:00pm
• July 15: Exempt Organizations1:00pm - 4:00pm
• July 16: Financial Institutions & Products1:00pm - 3:00pm
• July 21: Sales, Exchanges and Basis/Capital Recovery and Leasing1:00pm - 4:00pm
• July 22: Court Procedure & Practice1:00pm - 3:00pm
• July 23: Investment Management1:00pm - 4:00pm
• July 28: Employee Benefits1:00pm - 4:00pm
• July 29: Administrative Practice1:00pm - 3:00pm
• July 30: Standards of Tax Practice1:00pm - 3:00pm

*All sessions are live in Eastern Standard Time

William Chun was selected as Tax Division Liaison at the American Bar Association.  Will is a law student who is getting experience through tax courses at Rutgers Law School.  Tune in to learn about his responsibility as Tax Division Liaison to get other law students interested in tax.

It's an episode release on my birthday -

Would you give me the gift of listening to my interview with Paul Harrison?  He is the Tax Clinic Director for Ladder Up (formerly the Center for Economic Progress) in Chicago, Illinois.  He has been working at Low Income Taxpayer Clinics in Maine and Virginia since 2001.  This veteran wanted to give out some guidance.  We wound up talking about the economic impact payments and related issues for deceased taxpayers, prisoners, and resident/nonresident aliens.  What are the cutoffs for when a person should be required to return a payment?

Happy Episode 100!  To celebrate, I interviewed Professor Francine Lipman of the William S. Boyd School of Law at Las Vegas, Nevada.  She inspired the name for the Tax Justice Warriors podcast so I have wanted to interview her about that.  We talked about passion warriors for tax justice, being a William S. Boyd Professor of Law, teaching remotely, the ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice, serving as a Nevada Tax Commissioner, and time management for her writing and other accomplishments.

https://law.unlv.edu/faculty/francine-lipman

Rebecca Stavish is the Managing Attorney for the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic for Mid Penn Legal Services in Pennsylvania.  We talked about working from home, her assistance for Amish clients, unique client property valuation, identity theft issues for economic impact payments, and more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0N3U86VHgk

By the way, next episode is number 100.  I have a special guest lined up who ties in to the origins of Tax Justice Warriors.  How’s that for a tease?

On this episode, I interviewed Maura Quint of Tax March.  Tax March has political roots, but I wanted to highlight how they are trying to educate and assist people who do not understand the tax system.  We talked about Maura's humor writing, social activism, the Tax March organization and helping low income and working class taxpayers.

Note:  I figured out how to improve the audio quality on interviews so starting this week they should be a lot better.  My apologies to interviewees and listeners for poor audio quality on past episodes.  Hey, it's a one-man show!

https://taxmarch.org/

https://taxmarch.org/about/ (to find information on Maura Quint)

A return appearance for a discussion with Andrew Belter, Clinic Director and Qualified Tax Expert of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic at the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee.  We discuss tax cases and working with the IRS during times of COVID-19.  Again, my apologies for any audio issues in the recording.

I interviewed Andrew Aleman, an attorney with the Law Offices of Nick Nemeth, PLLC in Dallas, Texas.  Andrew has his LL.M. in tax, volunteered for Rhode Island Legal Services, and has been a site coordinator for the VITA program.  He gives his thoughts on working remotely and adapting to technology in our current work situation.  Note:  I apologize for the audio issues as Andrew is tough to hear.

An interview with Shanthy Bala of Florida Rural Legal Services.  She will share experiences of recently joining the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic program, benefits of going to American Bar Association meetings, and the transition to working remotely during recent changes due to the coronavirus.

https://www.frls.org/services/tax-assistance/