Openness Is to Implementing Ex Parte Ban on Appeals Communications.

Tax Executives Institute has submitted comments to the Internal Revenue Service on the implementation of a two-year old provision designed to ensure the independence of the IRS's Appeals organization. The provision, enacted as part of the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, states that communication between Appeals personnel and other IRS employees should be curtailed to the extent it impairs the independence of the Appeals organization. TEI's comments were prompted by IRS Notice 99-50, which outlined the IRS's intended approach.

In a December 5, 1999, letter from TEI President Charles W. Shewbridge, III to IRS National Director of Appeals Daniel L. Black, TEI said that in developing guidance on the prohibition on ex parte communications with IRS Appeals officers, the question should not merely be, "Is this communication legally permissible under the statute?" Rather, the IRS should focus instead on the question, "Could this communication create an impression that Appeals' mission to provide a fair, impartial hearing has been compromised?" In other words, TEI's president noted, the IRS should err on the side of open communications between the IRS and the taxpayer.

TEI suggested in its letter that the approach in Notice 99-50 fell short of the proposed mark. In that notice, the IRS attempted to distinguish between ex parte discussions of facts or assertions in the file (which it found permissible) and such discussions of the strengths and weaknesses of an issue (which is impermissible). Mr. Shewbridge noted, however, that "the line between clarifying factual...