The National Taxpayer Advocate, currently Erin M. Collins,
offers a blog that often contains information useful for tax procedure
enthusiasts. The recent blogs are here.
The most recent is Treasury FY 2025 Green Book Proposes to Essentially
Eliminate Written Supervisory Approval for Penalties (NTA Blog 5/2/24), here.
The NTA laments that Treasury wishes to do away with §
6751(b)’s written supervisory approval requirement. Section 6751(b) is a poorly drafted statute causing
considerable confusion and requiring considerable administrative and judicial
resources. From my perspective, the commotion around § 6751(b) has served
little purpose other than rewarding tax abusers by avoiding penalties because
of an IRS procedural foot-fault that really did not affect those taxpayers negatively.
Nevertheless, being the NTA, the NTA must advocate for the taxpayers and finds
some value in the written supervisor approval requirement. For Treasury’s view
on the subject, readers might want to read the section of the Green Book General
Explanations starting on p. 175, here.
The Green Book catalogs Treasury’s proposals to Congress for
changes in statutory law. The Treasury General Explanations of the Green Book are
here.
The Table of Contents for the General Explanations is here. The General Explanations make the proposals in a format discussing present law, reason for change, and the proposals for change.
I thought I would mention without detail some of the other Green Book proposals
that might be of interest to tax procedure enthusiasts. These proposals are
under headings titled Improve Tax
Administration and Improve Tax
Compliance (see Table of Contents pp. iii & iv which provide links for
the items in the Table of Contents). All of the proposals are important, but the
ones I thought worth mentioning are:
1. The modification of § 6751(b)’s written supervisor
approval requirement discussed above, starting at p. 175 here.
(JAT Note: One matter perhaps relevant here is that Treasury has Proposed
Regulations that attempt to make some sense and order from the 6751(b)’s
written supervisor approval requirement. See Musings on Proposed § 6751(b)
Regulations and the Potential Demise of Chevron Deference (Federal Tax
Procedure Blog 1/8/24; 1/15/24), here.)
2. Revision of § 6103 to clarify that Tax Return Information Disclosed
on the Public Record in Judicial Proceedings or in Publicly Filed Notice of Federal
Tax Lien Is Not Tax Return Information Prohibited From Disclosure (General
Explanations starting at p. 187, here.)
3. Allow Admission in Innocent Spouse Cases of Relevant Evidence
at Trial (Rather than Limited to Administrative Record) (General Explanations
starting at p. 190, here.)
