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IRS Chief Counsel Gearing Up for Phase 3 Stimulus Bill

Posted on Mar. 26, 2020

The IRS Office of Chief Counsel will work hard to implement the stimulus provision of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (H.R. 748) once that bill is enacted.

The IRS is already fielding calls from taxpayers inquiring about the stimulus payments even though the legislation hasn’t been enacted yet, IRS Chief Counsel Michael Desmond said on a March 25 conference call sponsored by the American Bar Association Section of Taxation.

“We just ask for a little patience to get the law enacted and the IRS to be given a little bit of time for implementation of the stimulus program that’s anticipated as part of the phase 3 CARES Act legislation,” Desmond said.

Sheri A. Dillon of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP said that because the anticipated stimulus payment program first looks to information from 2019 tax returns to route payments, taxpayers should consider filing sooner rather than later even though the filing due date has been extended to July 15.

Dillon also praised the reported provision under which the stimulus payments wouldn’t be subject to any Treasury offset programs that would affect other tax refunds for 2019.

Dillon noted that the IRS will have the regulatory authority to answer questions raised by the bill, such as those concerning people who divorced in 2019 after filing joint returns in 2018 and households that split time with children or have foster children.

Please Hold

Desmond mentioned the IRS’s recent statement on its operations during the coronavirus outbreak. He noted that the IRS is trying to emphasize automated taxpayer assistance through its website. The IRS is already getting a large volume of taxpayer phone calls and expects a further spike if and when the CARES Act passes, he said.

“I would just encourage people to be patient. If at all possible, look for alternative channels of communication,” Desmond said. That applies to the practitioner hotline as well, he said.

Acting National Taxpayer Advocate Bridget Roberts said that the Taxpayer Advocate Service “is still fully open for business” because all TAS employees are now telework eligible for the first time and nearly all are working from home. She also offered her own request for patience while employees unused to teleworking and those with children underfoot accommodate themselves.

TAS has suspended all face-to-face walk-in services and moved all taxpayer communication to telephone and fax, Roberts said. There is some question about how effective communication by mail will be at least for now, she added.

Taxpayers and petitioners who want to talk to someone at TAS should call their local office, because the IRS doesn’t have enough people in the office to answer the centralized intake phone number, Roberts said.

Tax Court Chief Judge Maurice B. Foley said that even though the court’s building is closed, its judges are still working, with almost everyone now doing so remotely. That means the judges are available by phone to help move cases along, he added.

While calls may go to voicemail, the court is retrieving and returning those messages, according to Foley. “All you have to do is call. You may not get an immediate response, but you will get a response,” he said.

Holding Court

Desmond said that most chief counsel attorneys are working remotely. This means that IRS trial attorneys are still trying to move their cases along, even though the Tax Court canceled the next several months’ worth of trial sessions, he said.

Like the Tax Court, IRS attorneys are trying to emphasize settlement, particularly because settlement conferences can be conducted in conference calls with the court, Desmond said.

The IRS is also hoping to fully stipulate as many cases that don’t settle as possible so that the Tax Court can decide them without the need for a trial on disputed facts, Desmond said. And the IRS has also begun discussions with the court about extending the IRS’s deadline relief to include petitions to the court, he said, adding that the IRS’s authority to extend deadlines under section 7508A is broad.

While the Tax Court isn’t processing paper filings, electronic submission still works, Foley said. He called on volunteer attorneys and low-income taxpayer clinics to help pro se petitioners register for the court’s electronic access system.

Even though all trial sessions have been canceled until July, the court is still assigning cases to the judge who would have presided over the relevant session, Foley said. Normally, the Tax Court only assigns a judge to a case for a trial session.

Roberts said that TAS is looking at its current inventory to triage cases. The focus will be on refund-related issues “to try to get money into the hands of taxpayers as quickly as possible,” she said.

Another area of focus will be taxpayers with identity confirmation issues, Roberts said. She explained that if a taxpayer is unable to confirm who they are over the phone with the IRS, they can work with TAS to get the necessary information and documentation sent to the IRS.

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