Tax Procedure Book Errata - IRS Adopts New Rules Restricting Availability of In-Person Appeals Conferences (10/17/16)

The first paragraph in Chapter 10, at Par. VI. Conferences, (Student Edition p 347; Practitioner Edition 487) is revised to read as follows (I provide the footnotes here for the benefit of Practitioners; remember that the footnote numbers are provisional and will be different in the next edition; students should generally not read the footnotes; I note in red the key changes to the text):

The taxpayer will have at least one conference with the Appeals Officer.  Historically, the conference was in person at the Appeals Officer’s office, by telephone, or sometimes by correspondence. n1597 In October 2016, however, the IRS adopted IRM procedures that appeals conferences are generally held by telephone and, where the taxpayer desires an in-person conference, to offer the taxpayer “a virtual conference as an alternative when the technology for a virtual conference is available.” n1598 The IRM recognizes that “[T]here may be situations in which an in-person conference, including circuit riding should be held to help reach resolution;” in those cases, an in-person conference may be available. n1599 These new procedures limiting the circumstances in which an in-person conference is available are controversial. n1600 It is too early to determine how they will affect the actuality and perception of the Appeals procedures.
   n1597 IRM 8.6.1.1  (06-25-2015), Introduction to Discussion on Conferences.  This IRM provision has now been replaced by IRM 8.6.1.1  (10-01-2016), Introduction to Discussion on Conferences, and 8.6.1.4.1  (10-01-2016), Conference Practice, which discuss the IRS’s move away from in-person conferences in many cases.  I discuss this move in the text.
   n1598 IRM 8.6.1.4.1.3  (10-01-2016), Conference Practice.
   n1599 IRM 8.6.1.4.1.4  (10-01-2016), Conference Practice.
   n1600 See Leslie Book, Technology and the Tax System: A Less Personal Appeals Office Coming Our Way (Procedurally Taxing Blog 10/13/16). [This blog entry is here.]

Mitigation Provisions of the Code - §§ 1311-1314 (10/10/16)

I have recently been revisiting the mitigation provisions of the Code (Discussed in the Federal Tax Procedure book at Chapter VI - Statutes of Limitation, VII. G. (Student Edition pp. 177-185; and Practitioner Edition pp. 256-265).  I will have a revised version of that discussion in the next edition of the Federal Tax Procedure Book (currently planned for early August 2017, although I will try to post the revised version of this mitigation discussion prior to then)

On the last page of the discussion in the current edition (2016), I have the following (footnotes omitted)

5. Supplementary Reading for Mitigation Enthusiasts. 

I commend to your further study on mitigation the best (in my judgment) tax procedure law review article ever written: John M. Maguire, Stanley S. Surrey and Roger John Traynor, Section 820 of the Revenue Act of 1938, 48 Yale L. J. 509 (Part 1) and 719 (Part 2) (1939). Students using this book may not recognize the authors, but they are a team of all-time legal “superstars.” The authors were young brain trusters lured to Washington by Franklin Delano Roosevelt's “New Deal.” They assisted in the drafting and enactment of the mitigation provisions of the Code in the late ‘30s. Maguire and Surrey rose to the heights of tax academia with distinguished private and public careers. Traynor became one of this country's most respected jurists as a Justice on the California Supreme Court where he shaped the debate of thoughtful discussion in many legal areas. All law students and lawyers should at least know who Traynor is. The ultimate contributions to American jurisprudence by each these authors in their own way was foreshadowed by this article.

I have received permission from the Yale Law Journal to provide linked copies of the two part law review article so that readers of this blog and the book can review online or download, as appropriate.  The links are here (Pat 1) and here (Part 2).