Tax Justice Warriors

The IRS is hosting advance child tax credit free tax prep days to assist taxpayers in filing 2020 tax returns in order to be eligible for the child tax credit in 12 select cities.   Turnout was low on June 25 and 26 so I am providing information to boost turnout on July 9 and 10.   For information, go to this website: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/advance-child-tax-credit-free-tax-prep-days   To ma...

I wanted to let you know about a recent publication from the American Bar Association.  It is an essential reference for any tax controversy or Low Income Taxpayer Clinic worker.  I was co-author of chapter 5 for this edition, "Securing Information from the IRS by Taxpayers."   Effectively Representing Your Client Before the IRS, 8th Edition Edited by Christine S Speidel and Patrick W Thomas Effec...

Two big updates from the IRS came out this week: The Advance Child Tax Credit Non-Filer Portal is now available The non-filer portal is now available and further online tools will assist taxpayers to get the advance child tax credit this year.  Payments will begin on July 15 and will continue around the 15th of the month until the end of 2021. IRS Collections is resuming normal operations As IRS C...

With transitioning between legal aid organizations, this has been a great time for me to clean up the various clients that I am connected with through the CAF Unit at the IRS.  Before leaving Kansas Legal Services, I tried to sever ties with various clients by submitting withdrawals to the CAF Unit.  Following that, I did a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out which clients were s...

There are Low Income Taxpayer Clinic practitioners that focus on more than tax issues.  They might be required to work on more than one grant project at a legal aid, so have a split such as 50%/50% between projects.  Or they might be teaching at a law school on other courses such as remedies and contracts.  Do clinicians like the variety or would they prefer to focus on taxes only?  Perhaps workin...

Andrew Belter and I have moved between LITC organizations and we have a discussion about the related issues.  There are many things to think about when leaving a clinic and making things ready or starting at a clinic and getting into the learning curve.  We have a discussion of the need for transition plans, the LITC grant report, getting started in an organization and more.  

A personal update!   I have changed jobs from the LITC at Kansas Legal Services to working at the LITC at Legal Aid of Western Missouri.   Additionally, I am Supervising Attorney for their Consumer Protection Unit. The unit assists low-income clients to retain ownership of their homes via bankruptcy, tax sale redemption contracts, loan modifications, notices of error and requests for information,...

You should be aware of Nina Olson if you are interested in taxes. She was National Taxpayer Advocate for 18 years, cementing the role for leadership of the Taxpayer Advocate Service. She has crossed the nation to get taxpayer feedback, testified before Congress, and submitted annual reports to Congress. Now, she is the Executive Director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights and plans their annual Int...

The next American Bar Association Section of Taxation May Meeting is coming up next week and it is virtual. On this episode, I discuss various committee panels that focus on tax controversy, policy, ethics, teaching and other interests I have. Also, there are panels connected to the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic world such as the Pro Bono and Tax Clinics, Individual and Family Taxation, and Diversity...

I took a U.S. Tax Court case to trial and won! This episode discusses the events from the virtual calendar call of Wichita, Kansas to the decision posting on the Tax Court website.   Timeline: February 11, 2021 – Tax Court Calendar Call (Wichita, KS) February 23, 2021 – Tax Court Conference Call March 10, 2021 – Trial March 11, 2021 – Bench Opinion Oral Findings of Fact and Opinion April 13, 2021...

Just what does IRS Chief Counsel do? Well, they represent the IRS as their client. What does that mean? In this episode, I unpack different job items that IRS Chief Counsel does beyond go to U.S. Tax Court.   For example, Chief Counsel advise on different legal matters for other divisions of the IRS. What else do they do? Tune in to learn more.   For finding out all kinds of information on the Off...

In any profession, it is a curve ball when any skilled person is no longer available. This could be due to death, illness, disability, retirement or just plain turnover at the employer.   I looked into succession plans and have some guidance from LITC Administration. There are things to think about when it comes to case review, grant reporting, contacts for outreach and education, and more.  

This week, a short episode looking at unexpected tax problems following a divorce.

The American Rescue Plan was signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021. It contains several provisions. Part of the law focuses on tax provisions as well.   In this episode, there is a rundown of top ten items affecting individual tax filers.   1) The third round of stimulus payments (economic impact payments) 2) Earned income tax credit expansion 3) The premium tax credit expansion...

The National Taxpayer Advocate compared Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) organization to superheroes in a recent blog post:   https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/news/nta-blog-not-all-superheroes-wear-capes-join-the-low-income-taxpayer-clinic-community-and-be-a-hero-to-taxpayers-most-in-need/   Within that blog post, she cites the IRS has the application period open through April 16 for organiza...

The tax season keeps changing. The IRS announced that the tax filing deadline for federal individual income tax returns are due on May 17. That does not affect corporate taxes or quarterly estimated tax payments. Will it affect your state tax filing – check with your state’s tax agency.   How will the changes affect tax filing? I talk through some effects that might occur for tax preparers and the...

The American Rescue Plan has now been signed into law. It includes an expansion of the child tax credit for 2021.  That plan expands the age for qualifying children to include 17-year-olds.  It increases the credit to $3,000 per child for many families (with $3,600 being the amount for children under age 6).   The $2,500 earnings floor is removed and the credit will be fully refundable.  Finally,...

This episode provides a roundup of recent tax events and other issues. To begin with, the American Bar Association Midyear Tax Meeting was virtual. I provide highlights regarding the Individual & Family Taxation Committee’s focus on the Tax Gap and the Diversity Committee’s focus on inequality in race and taxes. With the IRS, their new electronic system to upload power of attorney forms seems to b...

This is a short episode to provide some highlights on the 2020 tax return that not everyone may be aware of. While I covered some of these items in past episodes, I thought the highlights would be worth mentioning again.   Basically: the recovery rebate credit is one way taxpayers may get their economic impact (stimulus) payments through filing a tax return, but they may not get as much as they ex...

This episode details the return of the U.S. Tax Court for hearings in Kansas City, Missouri, and Wichita, Kansas in February 2021.  Tune in to hear about remote proceedings, feedback on the Tax Court upgrade to the DAWSON system, and remote calendar calls.

The child tax credit is again in the news because of potential increases by Congress. On this episode, I look at the history and the requirements.   I also look at how the credit is both nonrefundable and refundable. That means that the nonrefundable portion takes care of the tax liability before the refundable portion is available. The refundable portion is called the additional child tax credit....

This episode focuses on the current state of affairs in working with IRS Collections and Enforcement. The issues with the IRS customer service are making it difficult to represent clients. As I focused on last episode, there are delays in CAF Unit processing of Form 2848 power of attorney forms. There are still long delays with speaking with someone over the phone at the IRS to resolve issues. Add...

While I identified on a previous episode changes that the IRS is making for submissions of power of attorney forms, that still does not change how the IRS processes those forms. There were delays last year for processing of Form 2848 and other forms within the IRS. I talk in this episode about delays at the CAF (Central Authorization File) Unit. This is an issue because the IRS moves forward with...

The tax season now starts February 12!   In looking at a crash course in taxes, I decided the easiest way to talk with someone about several concepts was to review the form 1040. In part two, I go through the second page of form 1040. It introduces the concepts of the tax due after finding taxable income, nonrefundable credits, other taxes (including self-employment tax), withholding, estimated ta...

In looking at a crash course in taxes, I decided the easiest way to talk with someone about several concepts was to review the form 1040. In part one, I will go through the first page of form 1040. It introduces the concepts of filing status, dependents, income, adjustments to income (which results in adjusted gross income), deductions – the choice of standard or itemized deductions, and taxable i...