Tax Executive Committee participates in annual meeting with IRS Commissioner Richardson.

A ICPA Tax Division committees and staff have many formal and informal contacts and meetings with various IRS functional areas during the year. In addition, the Tax Executive Committee participates in an annual meeting with the IRS Commissioner as part of an ongoing communication process with the Service. This past year's meeting was held on Nov. 22, 1996, and was led by Tax Executive Committee Chair Michael E. Mares, Witt, Mares & Company, PLC. Also participating were members Deborah Walker (Immediate Past Chair), KPMG Peat Marwick LLP; A.M. (Tony) Komlyn, Price Waterhouse LLP; David A. Lifson, Hays & Company; and Kevin F. Reilly, Pannell Kerr Forster, PC. Representing the Tax Division staff were Gerald W. Padwe, Vice President-Taxation; Edward S. Karl, Director; end dean E Trompeter, Technical Manager. The IRS participants were led by Commissioner Margaret Milner Richardson, Deputy Commissioner Michael Dolan, Chief Counsel Stuart Brown and representatives from, among others, operations, forms & submission processing, strategic planning, customer service, appeals, disclosure litigation and the taxpayer advocate's office. A summary of the items discussed follows.

Meeting Highlights

* The Tax Division's Statements on Responsibilities in Tax Practice (SRTPs) constitutes a body of advisory opinion on what are appropriate standards of tax practice. The Division is considering an effort to make the SRTPs enforceable under the AICPA ethics program, rather than merely educational in nature, as they are today An update was given on the status of those efforts.

The Survey of Practitioner Attitudes Towards the IRS (April 1996) was undertaken by the Tax Division with the intent of providing the Service with constructive feedback on various IRS programs and functional areas. The Tax Executive Committee discussed with the Service the data presented in the survey's report.

* The creation of the National Commission on Restructuring the IRS and the Tax Division's formation of a task force to provide feedback to the Commission.

* Recent efforts by the Service to use AICPA publications to communicate with AICPA members. Articles that were published in the November 1996 issues of The Tax Adviser (see D.C. Currents, "IRS Cuts Could Have Affected Tax Practice,") and the Journal of Accountancy (see Tax Issues, "A Letter to the Profession [from Commissioner Richardson],"), for example, have been beneficial. Those efforts will continue.

* The IRS continues to implement internal organizational changes as necessitated by recent budget restrictions. Telephone access and compliance levels are areas of continued concern to the Service and thus, there are no plans to cut these programs any further.

* The IRS was asked about the possibility of liberalizing the disclosure rules under Sec. 6103 to allow the facilitation of taxpayer representation and a constructive way for the Service to resolve taxpayer issues. This would take place by allowing the holder of an IRS notice (e.g., practitioners) limited authorization to discuss confidential taxpayer information with an IRS official. Such a discussion would take place only after the professional was able to recite a "PIN" number that would be unique to and printed on an IRS notice. Follow-up discussions will take place.

* Since Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program examinations have been suspended indefinitely, the Service has been forced to use alternative methods to update the Discriminate Information Function scoring system. In addition to the consideration of operational data and examination "no-change" statistics, the IRS has been working with outside consultants on various options.

* Discussions were held with IRS staff over the last year concerning the adoption of an Internal Revenue Manual supplement that would have placed reasonable restraints on agent access to certain intellectual property. An update was given on consideration of alternative solutions to Tax Division concerns.

* The Taxpayer Bill of Rights 2, enacted this past summer, created some changes and enhancements to the Problems Resolution Program (PRP). Included in the Bill was a name change (the Taxpayer Ombudsman is now known as the Taxpayer Advocate), additional authority for problems resolution staff, and a required annual report to Congress on PRP activities and recommendations.

For more information on this meeting, call Ed Karl at [phone] or Jean Trompeter at [phone].

Editor's note: This department is written by the AICPA Tax Division's professional staff It is designed to heighten awareness of the Division's work and keep readers apprised of Tax Division activities involving tax policy, technical issues and other practice support matters.

The authors' views, as expressed in this column, do not necessarily reflect the views of the AICPA. Official positions are determined through certain specific committee procedures, due process and deliberation.