Tax Justice Warriors

I sat down with Inland Counties Legal Services LITC attorney Jennifer Schinke at the ABA Tax Section Midyear Meeting in Los Angeles, California in February 2025.

I sat down with Legal Services Alabama Low Income Taxpayer Clinic Staff Attorney Maceo Kirkland, from Montgomery, Alabama, at the ABA Section of Taxation Midyear Meeting in Los Angeles, California in February 2025.

I sat down with President and CEO of Campaign of Woking Families, Dr. Nikia Owens, at the Annual LITC Conference in Alexandria, VA in December 2024. For more information on the Campaign for Working Families, you can visit their website.

In this episode, I discuss how tax plans, proposed by Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in this 2024 election campaign, would affect low-income taxpayers. Thank you to my student, Maddie Feeney for her research for this episode! 

I sat down here with Howard University School of Law Professor Alice M. Thomas. The interview was conducted at the ABA Section of Taxation May 2024 meeting in Washington, D.C.

I sat down here in February 2024 with Randy Goldson, a Temple Law student who took my Low Income Taxpayer Clinic class in fall 2023.

I sat down here in December 2023 with Hyo Jin Lee, a Temple Law student who took my Low Income Taxpayer Clinic class in fall 2023.

I sat down here with my LITC colleague Mary Ann David, Senior Attorney at Legal Services of Greater Miami. We spoke at the ABA Tax Section Midyear Meeting in San Francisco in January 2024.

I sat down here with Legal Aid of San Diego Senior Staff Attorney, a fellow LITC practitioner, at the annual LITC conference in Washington, D.C. in December 2023.  Here is more information on the Gregory Evans Knoll Legacy Fund that Shahin mentioned. 

As part of a series of interviews with colleagues in low Income taxpayer clinics from across the country and students in our clinic at Temple Law, I interviewed Cal Poly Low Income Taxpayer Clinic Director and Professor Lisa Sperow. I had the chance to sit down with Lisa at the annual Low Income Taxpayer Clinics Conference in Washington, D.C. in December 2023.

As part of a series of interviews with colleagues in Low Income Taxpayer Clinics from across the country and students in our clinic at Temple Law, I interviewed Syracuse Law tax clinic director and Professor Rob Nassau. I had the chance to sit down with Rob at the annual Low Income Taxpayer Clinics Conference in Washington, D.C. in December 2023.

In this episode, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I give thanks to so many people who support me and make my job easier.

This episode is a reflection on one year of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the impact President Biden's signature domestic legislative achievement has had on taxpayers and tax practitioners. 

I discuss in the episode a major professional development: I am now a Professor of Practice and Director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic at Temple University Beasley School of Law! After five wonderful years at Philadelphia Legal Assistance Taxpayer Support Clinic, I am now pursuing this exciting opportunity. I am eager to represent clients across Pennsylvania, to supervise law students, and to teach tax law and IRS procedure.

This episode is a discussion of how workers can challenge their misclassification as independent contractors through the IRS SS-8 process. I discuss best practices for how practitioners can identify, address, and remedy misclassification on behalf of clients. I discuss the IRS procedures, including the accurate reporting of misclassification income as wages on tax returns, that individuals should know.  Here are some important resources on worker misclassification: Philadelphia Legal Assistance page on misclassification Center for Urban Pedagogy-designed poster that I worked on regarding misclassification U.S. Department of Labor page on misclassification Presentation on misclassification that I did with attorney Rebecca Stavish IRS instructions on Form SS-8 My most recent Procedurally Taxing blog post on 26 U.S.C. 7434 (discussed in episode)

In this episode, I discussed what I learned at the ABA Tax Section May 2023 Meeting in Washington, D.C. I mentioned several important sessions I attended and how I had the chance to ask IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel a question during his closing plenary remarks.  This episode also includes interviews I conducted, at the conference, with two great colleagues and mentors, Leslie Book and Mandi Matlock. They both generously agreed to sit down with me on the final day of the conference to discuss their careers and their perspectives. At Villanova Law, Professor Les Book, a nationally recognized scholar on tax procedure and coauthor of the Procedurally Taxing blog, teaches several tax courses and has experience in numerous roles there that include Director of the Federal Tax Clinic. I had the privilege of having Professor Book as my professor of Introduction to Federal Income Tax in my 3L spring semester at Villanova. Since then, he has helped me get to where I am today, including in receiving the ABA Tax Section Brunswick Public Service Fellowship.  Professor Mandi Matlock, who recently served as Interim Director of the Federal Tax Clinic at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, has worked as a low income taxpayer clinic attorney at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid for over two decades. In the meantime, she became a nationally renowned expert on tax and consumer law matters as she was of counsel to the National Consumer Law Center and was a Local Taxpayer Advocate in Austin, among other roles.  

In this episode, I break down the 2023 tax filing season as I offer reflections on how the $80 billion in additional funding for the IRS, from the Inflation Reduction Act, appears to have notably improved service for taxpayers and tax practitioners. I also delve into the history of the fedreal refund statute of limitations as it is an issue that became salient when the IRS announced that July 17, 2023 is the refund deadline for unfiled 2019 returns. I briefly also discuss the new IRS strategic operating plan (regarding how the IRS will use their new funding); you can read the plan here.

At the Annual Low Income Taxpayer Clinics Conference in Phoenix on December 7, 2022, I had the privilege of sitting down with Professor Keith Fogg, a mentor and colleague. Keith practiced at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel for over 30 years before he began an academic career in 2007 first running the Villanova Law Federal Tax Clinic and then running the Harvard Law Federal Tax Clinic from 2015 until his retirement in 2022. Additionally, Keith cofounded the Procedurally Taxing blog (for which I have written several articles) that he still helps run and his name is often associated with the American Bar Association Tax Section's Effectively Representing Your Client Before the IRS ("The Fogg Manual"), as he has edited the manual's 5th, 6th, and 7th editions (I had the privilege of authoring the worker classification chapter for the 8th edition).

At the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Taxation Midyear Meeting in San Diego on February 10, 2023, I sat down with former National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson and ABA Christine A. Brunswick Fellow Anna Gooch to discuss their work at the Center for Taxpayer Rights: https://taxpayer-rights.org/ For more information on the Brunswick Fellowship, visit here: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/taxation/awards/psfellowship/ 

Omeed sits down here with National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins at the 2023 Annual Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) Grantee Conference in Phoenix, Arizona on December 8, 2022. Collins spoke about the difficulties taxpayers and tax practitioners faced with the IRS in 2022. She also discussed how her office is working to address these problems. Since this interview was conducted, the LITC maximum grant, which was discussed here, has been temporarily increased from $100,000 to $200,000 per year, as described here on page 3 of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinics 2022 Program Report: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5066.pdf Read the National Taxpayer Advocate 2022 Annual Report to Congress here: https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/reports/2022-annual-report-to-congress/

From William Schmidt- I am going from being a Clinic Director for Low Income Taxpayer Clinics to working for the Kansas City branch of the IRS Office of Chief Counsel (Small Business/Self-Employed) as a Tax Attorney.  Today's episode is a short one as I make my farewells.   In September, I finished working for the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic and legal aid worlds, where I worked for 6.5 years. I worked for over 5 years for Kansas Legal Services and almost 1.5 years for Legal Aid of Western Missouri. I am going to miss working with others that advocate for those who truly need it. Both Kansas Legal Services and Legal Aid of Western Missouri are wonderful organizations that provide legal help to people in need. Through those organizations, I was able to provide tax, bankruptcy, consumer protection and other kinds of assistance through the years to low income taxpayers and other people in need. The Low Income Taxpayer Clinic community is a group that I will miss greatly. Gatherings from the local to the national level brought friendly, helpful people willing to talk tax and assist newcomers. I made several friends through the LITC, the ABA and in the IRS that were trying to connect taxpayers with the right assistance. I hope all of those organizations continue strong and you lend them support (if you're able) to bring help for those who need it.   I believe my 6.5 years within the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic world, writing regularly for Procedurally Taxing, podcasting for 180 episodes, presenting at conferences, teaching as an adjunct professor and more have led me to taking on this new experience. I look forward to working with others I know within the IRS and learning about IRS systems - I think this will be an interesting adventure!   The future of this podcast is a bit up in the air.  I have asked a couple people to take over, but in the meantime it will be going on hiatus.   Best wishes to you and thank you for listening!

If you have been following news from the Inflation Reduction Act, you probably heard news that the IRS received nearly $80 billion in funding over the next decade.  There have been reactions of all kinds.  In this episode, I look at how the funding is divided among the departments at the IRS.  Some of the goals are examinations of high-income individuals, building back the staff from retirement and other departures, and modernizing the IRS computer systems.  From there, I debunk some of the rumors regarding the IRS such as how they are building an army or arming their employees.  The bottom line is that the IRS will follow the law and the rumors are false.   The Fear Over IRS Funding (procedurallytaxing.com) Republican IRS fearmongering in Florida is getting scary (nbcnews.com) Opinion | Inside the IRS ‘Pipeline' used to process tax returns - Washington Post  

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 several of the committee presentations.  This episode provides a recap of the events, including the panels that caused audience reactions, some Tax Court judges who attended, and a tip about getting food at a reception.   William was also on a Tax Court Practice and Procedure panel on Collection Due Process cases in the U.S. Tax Court and he provides an update on how that went.  

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 collectible status.  What else?  See below. Talking about low-income taxpayers dealing with stock reporting and tax audits. How to mark a duplicate tax return sent to the IRS? Talking about expenses and income reporting on an innocent spouse request submission. A reminder that the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic grant application or Non-Competing Continuation deadlines are coming up! Last, this will be Andrew Belter's final episode as he makes a career change! Tune in to find out what William Schmidt and Andrew Belter have to say about those topics.

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 case has been remanded for a decision on whether equitable tolling does apply to the facts in the case.   William Schmidt and Andrew Belter discuss the Boechler decision regarding potential change for future collection due process cases.  This could be a big change, but the facts need to be right.   Also, William is going to the ABA May Tax Meeting in Washington, D.C. that takes place May 12-14.  On the 13th, he will be in the Court Procedure & Practice panel, “Update on Collection Due Process Cases in U.S. Tax Court and Related Issues” from 4:15 to 5:45 Eastern.  The panel will discuss Boechler and other collection due process issues affecting the Tax Court.  If you are there in person, say hi.  If not, the meeting is also in a hybrid format so should be available virtually for some time after.  

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 power of attorney form for the decedent's estate signed by the widowed spouse in order to do anything on the account.  That makes it difficult to ask for transcripts or get the account into currently not collectible status.  Next, there are difficulties when transcripts are unavailable from the IRS but the representative does have access to the account.  How to proceed?  Also, when the clinic is contacted about criminal tax issues, what next?  Since the LITC program does not focus on criminal tax, it is good to have a network for referring those cases.  These topics and more are discussed in this episode.  Thanks for tuning in!

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 LITC grant report.  By now, clinics should have submitted their reports so our hosts talk about their efforts to put their reports together.  Spreadsheets or other ways of tracking data like case software are quite useful!

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 discussion of the difficulties in tracking data for the grant report and some tips in order to gather that data in an easier manner.

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 Supreme Court is whether that deadline is jurisdictional or if equitable tolling can provide any relief. Second, there was a discussion on the ABA Section of Taxation's Pro Bono and Tax Clinics Committee listserv regarding Answers from IRS Chief Counsel in Tax Court.  For years 1983-2007, the Tax Court did not require answers in S cases.  We discuss the pros and cons of Answers, plus suggestions for what could replace them. Note:  the phrase we couldn't remember was financial disability.  William covered that topic way back in episode 55.  To learn more, you can also look at Internal Revenue Code section 6511(h), Rev. Proc. 99-21 or IRS Publication 556, page 15.  

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, the were able to access IRS online services.   Various people protested to Congress and that reached the IRS.  On February 7, 2022, the IRS announced it would transition away from using ID.me and its facial recognition tools to help authenticate people creating new online accounts. The transition was to occur over the following weeks in order to prevent larger disruptions to taxpayers during filing season. During the transition, the IRS stated they would quickly develop and bring online an additional authentication process that does not involve facial recognition. The IRS stated they would “continue to work with its cross-government partners to develop authentication methods that protect taxpayer data and ensure broad access to online tools.”   On this episode, Andrew Belter and William Schmidt spoke with John Gilmore, Head of Research at Abine/DeleteMe.  The conversation started with how ID.me came to be used by the federal government and John's concerns regarding ID.me, such as whether they are regulated and what they do with their data.  We discussed the IRS pivot away from facial recognition and that other state and federal government agencies are still using ID.me.  From there, we look at how this impacts low income taxpayers such as the complaints for people of color using facial recognition and how low income taxpayers do not have access to technology.  

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 Tax Meeting.  It was a virtual conference that took place from January 31 to May 4.  Hopefully we provided some insights in our preview of the event.  There are discussions that took place on topics such as diversity and ethics.  Updates on current events from the National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins, the IRS and the U.S. Tax Court.  Discussions of litigation that ranged from the U.S. Tax Court to the U.S. Supreme Court.  There are a variety of topics that should interest tax practitioners at American Bar Association Section of Taxation events.   Since the event has already happened, you have not necessarily missed out.  For American Bar Association members, the recordings are still available for 90 days after the meeting.  It is a bargain for LITC personnel to access the entire conference for $25.   The meeting was quite informative and it is always wonderful to see and speak with other tax professionals, even when it is all online.  

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 perform audits independently of the IRS?  Does the state follow IRS decisions regarding innocent spouse?  Is there a taxpayer advocate in your state?  What does that person do?  Andrew and William talk through these questions based on their state tax experience.

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 stimulus payment and reconciling the advance child tax credit.  One suggestion I have heard is to make an appointment with your local Taxpayer Assistance Center if the amounts received by the taxpayer and the notice letter from the IRS do not match up.   Beyond that, what are our personal goals for our clinics and related items on our jobs?  We discuss deadlines, outreach, interviews for the podcast, and keeping a work balance without adding too much the workload.

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 for Low Income Taxpayer Assistance (LITCs).   Note:  It was not mentioned in the episode, but we heard from the National Taxpayer Advocate at a later point on guidance for LITCs.  If there are issues in contacting TAS, the LITCs need to reach out to their Local Taxpayer Advocate (LTA).  The LITCs need to build close working relationships with their LTAs during these difficult times.  Contact your LTA especially if a form 911 has been submitted and you have not heard anything – send it directly to the LTA if you are able!   Also, Andrew and William talk through some networking tips and help if you are dealing with stress during the holidays.

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 blog post and discuss the changes the IRS recently brought to offers in compromise (OICs) and the offset bypass refund (OBR).   Two recent changes noted in the blog post: Not applying the current year refunds to the agreed-upon tax liability For hardship situations, the OBR remedy is now available during the pendency of an OIC Andrew and William discuss how those changes provide assistance for low income taxpayers.   NTA Blog: IRS Initiates New Favorable Offer In Compromise Policies - Taxpayer Advocate Service  

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 communications like FAQs as if they are reliable, but the IRS stance is that the FAQs cannot be relied upon in a court of law.  The FAQs might also change and disappear from the IRS website.  This creates a difficulty for any taxpayer relying upon IRS FAQs. Most recently, the IRS has changed their stance regarding FAQs that any taxpayer relying upon those FAQs now has a stronger defense against penalties. For a discussion of this change and updates regarding the LITC 2021 Bootcamp, tune in to hear the talk between William Schmidt and Andrew Belter.

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 divorced spouses, non-traditional families, same-sex marriages and more.  Is it worth having to prove marital status when there are audits by the IRS? In the discussion, there are mentions of the marriage penalty, differences between state and federal tax filing, inequity between what is allowed for joint and married filing separate filers, and community state tax filing.  What changes would need to be made?  What about child-related tax benefits? Also, there is a brief discussion of cryptocurrency. Note:  we forgot to bring up phasing out innocent spouse and injured spouse issues and filing.

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 some sample forms for those withdrawals along with this episode.  If not, contact William on LinkedIn. Plus, Andrew talks about providing CLE information to LITCs to help them meet their match goals.

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 where the Low Income Taxpayer Clinics gave advice to unrepresented taxpayers. For the 2021 American Bar Association Tax Section Virtual Fall Tax Meeting, learn more about the Diversity Committee panel on tax preparer fraud, news from the Tax Court, the Individual and Family Taxation Committee's look at the current state of the IRS, and more.

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 Committee on “Protecting Vulnerable Taxpayers Against Tax Preparer Fraud.”

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 withdraw from the case.  In other instances, there may be a scramble to file paperwork to the IRS.  What are some considerations necessary to trust the client? -Also, there is the issue of premature assessments.  The U.S. Tax Court is backed up on processing petitions they have received.  In the meantime, the IRS has not received notices that those petitions were filed.  Their Collections department may then believe there is no petition and incorrectly send out a notice regarding the deficiency.  To address this issue, there is an email address to contact and provide your case number in the situation:  taxcourt.petitioner.premature.assessment@irs.gov   Here is the recent press release from the Tax Court on premature assessments:  08162021.pdf (ustaxcourt.gov)  

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 to hear more details!

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 will lead to some longer episodes. Also, I am keeping busy in my position as Supervising Attorney of the Consumer Protection Unit (which includes the LITC) at Legal Aid of Western Missouri.  As a result, it has been tougher for me to find the time to edit podcasts so I am going to switch from a weekly format to twice a month.  So, that means longer episodes but less often.   Hopefully, a frequency that works for everyone. I hope you will tune in and join us!

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 them from repaying?  What should be done for issues where the wrong parent received the payments?  These and other items come up on our discussion of the child tax credit.  Tune in to learn more!

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 make an appointment at a Taxpayer Assistance Center, call (844) 545-5640. Locate one of the Taxpayer Assistance Centers by going here:  https://www.irs.gov/help/contact-your-local-irs-office  

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 Effectively Representing Your Client Before the IRS is a comprehensive collection of everything a tax professional should know when dealing with the IRS.   https://www.americanbar.org/products/inv/book/404782279/?fbclid=IwAR3poLqI9KQeg_M9-fxvRG7R2NuB2q1NiEObaYU3_NvD7ZLLybf3tk4nCUs

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 Collections resumes normal operations, notices will be going out starting June 15 and taxpayers could be subject to liens or levies beginning August 15.

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 still connected to me.  In this episode, I discuss more details and learned just how many of the clients I still had connections with over the years.  Tune it to find out more!