Tax Justice Warriors

On this episode, an update on what is going on in Kansas City relating to tax issues.  Also, a talk about the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and its funding of the IRS.    At the time of recording, the Act had passed the Senate.  At the time of posting, it has also passed the House and is expected to go to President Biden to sign into law in the next week.

A short episode about balancing my workload between supervision and managing the tax clinic.  In order to balance the workload, it is necessary to reduce the number of cases and I talk about what I am doing to get there.

On May 12 through 14, 2022, the American Bar Association Section of Taxation held the 2022 May Tax Meeting.  It was a hybrid meeting, the first in-person meeting for the Section since 2020.  Portions of the meeting were also broadcast virtually.   There was a large group gathered and it seemed that people were happy to be meeting in person again.  William Schmidt attended the meeting and went to s...

This episode has a whole variety of topics: The offer in compromise forms are now updated – what about the grace period to transition to sending the new forms to the IRS? How many years of tax returns need to be submitted for the taxpayer to be compliant? The local standards for 2022 have been released. These are to be used for offers in compromise and to submit for a client to be in currently not...

The Boechler case before the Supreme Court was previously discussed in episode 173.  In the case, the question before the Supreme Court was whether the Tax Court correctly treated the deadline in this collection due process case as jurisdictional.  Spoiler – the Supreme Court did decide in the taxpayer’s favor that the deadline was not jurisdictional and that equitable tolling could apply.  The ca...

Welcome to a further discussion from William Schmidt (Legal Aid of Western Missouri) and Andrew Belter (Wisconsin JudiCare) on issues when calling the Practitioner Priority Service.  This time, there are issues when representing a client who is listed as the secondary person on the tax return.  Some of are clients are widows or divorced.  Recently, the IRS has been given difficulty or wanted a pow...

Andrew Belter and William Schmidt talked through the different instances when to sign for clients on submissions to the IRS or the Tax Court.  Some forms allow for either a taxpayer or their attorney to sign.  However, clients don’t always get the forms to us or keep in contact close to the deadlines.  What are some of the ethical considerations with those issues?   Next, they compare notes on the...

Andrew Belter and William Schmidt discuss some recent topics of concern for Low Income Taxpayer Clinics.  For one, Andrew brings up the difficulties with regard to reaching the IRS on the phones to get help for clients.  Both Andrew and William talk about their recent attempts to find assistance for clients by calling the IRS.  Then, William brings up the LITC grant report.  That leads to a discus...

This week, Andrew Belter and William Schmidt look at some U.S. Tax Court topics. First, the case Boechler v. Commissioner is before the U.S. Supreme Court where they have heard oral arguments.  In brief, an individual was a day late and missed the statutory deadline for a Collection Due Process hearing.  The Tax Court ruled that there was a strict jurisdictional deadline.  At issue before the Supr...

ID.me is a recent platform that the IRS was using as an online identity verification process for taxpayers to access self-help tools.  To verify their identity with ID.me, taxpayers needed to provide a photo of an identity document such as a driver's license, state ID or passport. They also needed to take a selfie with a smartphone or a computer with a webcam. Once their identity had been verified...

Well, before we started we didn’t think we had anything to talk about!  Andrew Belter (Wisconsin Judicare) and William Schmidt (Legal Aid of Western Missouri) caught up on recent tax news as the tax season is underway.  Access to transcripts with the CAF Unit and IRS budget restrictions from Congress are some of the topics.   The main portion of this episode is a discussion of the ABA 2022 Midyear...

Welcome to the tax filing season!  Andrew Belter and William Schmidt start with a discussion of reconciling the child tax credit with Letter 6419.  From there, we turn to differences between state and federal taxes.  For one, can you still find paper copies of your state tax forms at your local public library?  Who is faster at processing paper tax returns, the IRS or the state?  Does your state p...

Happy New Year 2022!  Andrew Belter and William Schmidt discuss what the year will hold regarding taxes.  The individual tax season will begin on January 24 and is expected to last through April 18 this year.   We discuss our outlook on the upcoming tax season and other items for the year.  This tax filing season, a difference will be reconciliation of the recovery rebate credit for the 3rd stimul...

Andrew Belter and William Schmidt do an end of year discussion.  They talk about the LITC conference and how the year has been working with the IRS.  Along with that, they discuss how the year went – moving from one LITC to another for each of them and some self-reflection on how outreach progressed during the year.

On this episode, Andrew Belter and William Schmidt discuss issues that the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is having in 2021.  Due to the IRS being backed up, taxpayers are contacting TAS for assistance.  While TAS normally provides assistance to taxpayers, the IRS and TAS are being contacted by taxpayers in record numbers.  As a result, TAS is difficult to reach and that means limited assistance...

On this episode, Andrew Belter and William Schmidt review offers in compromise – what are some of the basics in making an offer and what are the types of offers?  There is also a discussion of offset bypass refunds – working with the Taxpayer Advocate Service to try and get a refund for a client who owes a past-due government debt.   Next, we turn to the look at a recent National Taxpayer Advocate...

The IRS uses Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to quickly get information to the public regarding hot topics concerning taxes.  Most recently, the IRS has been using FAQs regarding stimulus payments and the advance child tax credit.  The IRS has been getting the word out about these topics to assist taxpayers to receive payments they are entitled to receive. The public treats different IRS communi...

Happy Halloween!  No tricks this time, just a treat. This time we have a discussion of the filing status on tax returns.  William Schmidt asks Andrew Belter – what is the need for listing whether you are married or single on the tax return?  When the tax return started, traditional values supported marriage incentives.  Now, there have been changes in society with marriages leading to separated or...

Andrew Belter and William Schmidt discuss their experiences with withdrawing from cases in the U.S. Tax Court.  Since it is necessary to receive court approval for an attorney to withdraw from a case, both of your hosts provide guidance on how to navigate what is required to be withdraw from a case when your client is no longer cooperating with you. If all goes right, you should be able to find so...

Last episode, William Schmidt talked on his own and gave the setup for the current episode.  Now, he is joined by Andrew Belter to break down the Tax Court’s virtual visit to Kansas City and the 2021 American Bar Association Tax Section Virtual Fall Tax Meeting. In Kansas City’s virtual Tax Court, learn more about the extra guests that appeared during the calendar call and the interesting cases wh...

This episode is providing a quick update on some items that William Schmidt is involved with.  For starters, there is Tax Court for Kansas City scheduled the week of September 20 and coming the week of January 24.  Next, William is involved with the Individual and Family Taxation Committee and gives a preview of their panel.  Last, William is on a panel Wednesday, September 22, for the Diversity C...

Andrew Belter and William Schmidt have a discussion on two items regarding client deadlines in taxes. -What to do when a client shows up with a short deadline for the IRS or Tax Court?  This might put an attorney in a bind regarding the work to do in a short amount of time.  Entering an appearance in court is easy for an attorney to do, but requires the judge’s approval to for the attorney to with...

Andrew Belter and William Schmidt discuss some items that have been happening at Legal Aid of Western Missouri (LAWMO). Last year, LAWMO set up a help line for people needing help getting their stimulus/Economic Impact Payments.  An article about the help line went viral and LAWMO wound up getting hundreds of applicants.  Now, LAWMO has a grant for a stimulus attorney to assist applicants. Tune in...

I wanted to pass on the information that I need to do a format shift for Tax Justice Warriors.  I have been thinking it would be good to have a co-host on the show to bring in more conversations on current tax topics.  I have enlisted frequent guest Andrew Belter, LITC Program Director at Wisconsin Judicare, to be a co-host so we are going to try and provide you some interesting discussions.  This...

Andrew Belter - is he guest or co-host or…is he both?  Andrew Belter, Clinic Director of the LITC at Wisconsin Judicare joins William Schmidt of the LITC at Legal Aid of Western Missouri to discuss the child tax credit. What are some of the issues for the child tax credit for divorced or separated parents?  Is there a safe harbor for people who should not have received the payments that would keep...