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New Taxpayer Advocate Hailed for Experience, Mentoring Efforts

Posted on Feb. 28, 2020

The months-long search for a new national taxpayer advocate ended with the selection of a longtime tax controversy specialist and former IRS chief counsel attorney.

That experience and background in working with all types of taxpayers has led officials to herald the appointment of Erin M. Collins as the new head of the Taxpayer Advocate Service on February 27, succeeding former National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson.

Olson, who retired from the position July 31, 2019, welcomed her successor, telling Tax Notes that Collins “will face many challenges,” but that she has a strong organization of local taxpayer advocates, attorneys, researchers, and systemic advocacy analysts behind her.

“All of that is an awesome responsibility, plus making sure you are not co-opted by the IRS itself. I sincerely wish her all the best,” Olson added.

Collins worked for 20 years at KPMG LLP, ending last April as a managing director of the firm’s tax controversy services practice, according to a joint statement from the IRS and Treasury. Before that, she served 15 years as an attorney in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel.

Collins will be an outstanding voice for American taxpayers,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement. “She has a wealth of experience representing a broad range of taxpayers before the IRS. . . . Erin is the ideal candidate to help the IRS modernize and improve service for American families and businesses.”

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig in the joint statement thanked acting National Taxpayer Advocate Bridget Roberts for her interim service.

At the International Fiscal Association meeting in Boston February 27, Rettig said he thinks Collins “is going to be spectacular. There’s things in her background that relate very well to low-income communities that certainly the taxpayer advocate needs to focus on. To the extent the rest of the IRS misses the focus, the taxpayer advocate is there to help us.”

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., also welcomed the new national taxpayer advocate.

Collins has a wealth of experience in the public and private sector, and I look forward to getting to know her,” Wyden said in a statement. “She has spent the past two decades at one of the most prominent accounting firms in the country, so I’d particularly like to discuss her priorities for improving IRS customer service for working folks.”

Finance Committee member Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., who called the taxpayer advocate “one of the most important positions within the administration,” also said he would like to hear about Collins’s vision for representing low- and middle-income taxpayers.

“I also look forward to discussing the challenges that she will be undertaking in this role, including implementation of the Taxpayer First Act, issues arising from the current tax filing season, and efforts to ensure that [the] IRS can better serve the needs of taxpayers,” Cardin said.

Rubber, Meet Road

Olson said that while she didn’t know her personally, Collins’s background in tax controversy and prosecutorial experience at the Office of Chief Counsel shouldn’t prejudice champions for lower-income taxpayer advocacy against her.

Collins has spent the past decade working to inspire women to participate in after-school and weekend mentorship programs for teenage girls in low-income communities, according to the IRS and Treasury, which said she’s also donated time on the boards of nonprofits serving communities with English as a second language.

Olson noted, however, that “it is actually a misconception that TAS handles largely poor people problems,” when in actuality the service is involved with “a broad distribution of taxpayers.”

“Identity theft is no respecter of income, nor are false positives of refund fraud, and these have been a huge portion of TAS inventory over the years,” Olson added.

On the other hand, experience representing taxpayers in correspondence audits and collection matters, especially in collection due process, would benefit Collins “because that is where the rubber meets the road,” Olson observed.

“But anyone who has practiced in controversies before the IRS knows what it is like to sit on hold on the phone for an hour and then be disconnected,” Olson said. “It doesn’t matter what type of client you represent to have that happen to you.”

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