SB/SE National Practitioner Forum

Meeting Highlights

February 16, 2012

9:00a.m. –12:10 p.m.

Room 2116, 1111 Constitution Ave. NW, WashingtonD.C.

Welcome

Martha Tobias, Senior Tax Analyst, StakeholderLiaison Headquarters

Karen Taylor, Director, Stakeholder Liaison Headquarters

“What’s Hot?” Conversation

Candice Cromling, Director, NationalPublic Liaison

Candice opened by giving a few updates including the fact that Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TAC)are now available for tax professionals and she will be sharing more information on this. Please refer to the irs.gov article, TAC Service Changes for the 2012 Filing Seasonfor furtherdetails.

  • There will be a panel discussion on Core Exam during the IRS Oversight BoardPublic Meeting on February 28th and Martha hopes to have this topic at an SB/SE practitioner meeting in the near future.
  • “Where’s My Refund” application is back up and running. It only updates once per week. Candice advised to contact IRS because IDRS provides more recent updates. If you have questions or concerns, please direct them to either Martha or Candice.

Opening by SB/SE Leadership

Ruth Perez, SB/SE Deputy Commissioner

Ruth started her discussion by stating she wanted to hear what the practitioner community was thinking and then she discussed SB/SE’s focus for the upcoming year.

Collections:

  • Streamlined Installment Agreements are increasingly popular including taxpayers with an annual income of up to $100,000 and a tax liability less than $50,000.
  • The number of accepted offers-in-compromise continues to increase; an approximate 83% increase from 2009 to 2011 due to the relaxedrequirements.

Tax Gap:

  • Tax Gap liabilities were revised from the last review in 2001, revealing the increase equaled the percentage ofunder reporting and underpaymentof taxes
  • Targeting certain areas of the Tax Gap is among the stronger compliance program initiatives.

Examination:

  • During 2012 SB/SE will continue to conduct examinations for the National Research Program (NRP).
  • Currently NRP is studying 12,000 randomly selected Form 1040 tax returns and in April, SB/SE will begin a one year study of corporate returns.

Q. Are you addressing Collection “What Ifs” on irs.gov? A. General “What If”questions and answers are available and are updated as necessary.

Q. What is the current tax gap amount?

A. $ 450 billion

Practitioner Comments:

There is interest for not only the IMF streamlined installment agreement but adding a BMF agreement as well.

There is a concern about accountability between Exam, Appeals and Collections. We are seeing a “That’s not us,” and “That’s not our part of the system,” mentality in office and field audits.

Small businesses are likely to fileincorrect or incomplete 1099'sas an attempt to comply with the rules especially now that they are required to answer questions about those filings. Therefore the IRS could be getting inaccurate data that they are then trying to match.

Taxpayer Burden Reduction Program

Laurie Tuzynski, Senior Advisor, Taxpayer Burden Reduction

Laurie began by comparing the old program to the current one. The Office of Taxpayer Burden Reduction (OTBR) worked on projects where cross-functional teams streamlined processes and promoted less burdensome rulings and regulations.Since burden reduction is embedded into the IRS culture the OTBR was disbanded. Highlights of the TBR program are:

  • The new Taxpayer Burden Reduction Program welcomes broad-reaching suggestions, and the irs.gov website has official tips, F13285A, and an email mailbox for forwarding ideas.
  • External stakeholders may share their ideas for reducing taxpayer burden using Form 13285A, Reducing Tax Burden on America’sTaxpayers, which can be found at the Taxpayer Burden site on IRS.gov.

Disaster Assistance Support

Michelle Harris, Senior Tax Analyst, Disaster Assistance Program

Michelle thankedeveryone for all they do in assisting taxpayers meet their tax obligations in the aftermath of disasters around the country. There aremany resources available for tax practitioners:

  • TheDisaster Relief Resource Center for Tax Professionalsis a resource center for tax practitioners on irs.gov and links to the Disaster homepage for a quick access to available resources.
  • The Disaster homepage links to current relief situations, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), news releases,IRS Partners anddisaster publications.
  • Reference materials include Publication 2194,Disaster Losses Kit for IndividualsandPublication 2194B,Disaster Losses Kit for Businesseswhich are being combined and condensed in the very near future.

Voluntary Classification Settlement Program

John Tuzynski, Chief,SB/SE Employment Tax Program

John explained that the new Voluntary Classification Settlement Program (VCSP)enables taxpayers to resolve worker classification issues and achieve assuranceunder federal employment tax law by voluntarily reclassifying workers for future tax periods. Highlights to the program are:

  • The program began on September 21, 2011 and since that time has received over 275 applications.
  • Form 8952,Application for Voluntary Classification Settlement is a 1 and ½ page document.
  • The now archived VCSP webinar was viewed on February 15, 2012 with 2200 in attendance.
  • Currently there is no combination federal and state agreement and no information is shared with any state Department of Revenue. VCSP is only for federal employment taxes.
  • A taxpayer cannot currently be under audit with the IRS or under audit for classification of workers by a state government agency. Filing the application does not trigger an audit.

(As promised, John provided the one page outline, The VoluntaryClassificationSettlement Program “At a Glance.”Please refer to the accompanying email.)

IRS Launches New Online Search Tool

Stephen Clarke, Project Manager, IRS Exempt Organizations

Steve gave the background then an overview of the Exempt Organizations Select Check tool found on irs.gov. Under the Pension Protection Act of 2006, organizations who don’t file the required 990 series return forms for three consecutive years automatically go into revocation status.Highlights to the EO Select Check are:

  • The siteconsolidated the three searchable databases: previous 990-N filers, auto-revoked organizations, and Pub78 data.
  • There are future plansto add a reinstatement date but currently inquiries must go through Customer Account Services at 1-800-876-1715.
  • EO website email’s .
  • Steve provided his email address:or any thoughts or recommendations on improving the site.

Practitioner Comments:

I found this very useful and it contained interesting information.

Discussion with the RPO

David Williams, Director, Return Preparer Office

David opened by asking if there were any major issues on the participants’ minds? Highlights of the discussion include:

  • Registered Tax Return Preparer - Although a preparer may state he/she is registered with the IRS, not untilthe IRS test is passed, the tax compliance check is completed and the IRS letter is received, maythe term “registered tax return preparer” be used.
  • Even though the walk-in offices areinundated andWage and Investment (W&I) is wrestling with limited resources, we aught to be thinking about the tax professional community.Further guidance has since circulated in the irs.gov article, TAC Service Changes for the 2012 Filing Season.
  • Problematic preparers are being identified and treated in the Complaint Referral Unit, which is an entire office handling complaints filed against tax preparers.
  • The next registration renewal cycle has the potential to be challenging but the current focus is on registering providers.

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The next meeting will be hosted by NPL on March 22nd. The Return Preparer Office will beonthe agenda to discuss continuing education requirements for professionals.Prior to the meeting, please sendyour questions and concerns abouteducation providing the education, taking the education, and/or education requirementsto .

If you would like more information about this forum or have topic suggestions relating to SB/SE programs and initiatives for future forums, please contact Martha Tobias, senior tax analyst at 202-283-0573 .

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