Tax Executive Committee participates in annual meeting with IRS Commissioner Richardson.

• Author: Karl, Edward S.
• Position: AICPA Tax Division Tax Executive Committee, Margaret Milner Richardson

A ICPA Tax Division committees and staff have many formal and informal contacts and meetings with various IRS functional areas during the year. In addition, the Tax Executive Committee participates in an annual meeting with the IRS Commissioner as part of an ongoing communication process with the Service. This past year's meeting was held on Nov. 22, 1996, and was led by Tax Executive Committee Chair Michael E. Mares, Witt, Mares & Company, PLC. Also participating were members Deborah Walker (Immediate Past Chair), KPMG Peat Marwick LLP; A.M. (Tony) Komlyn, Price Waterhouse LLP; David A. Lifson, Hays & Company; and Kevin F. Reilly, Pannell Kerr Forster, PC. Representing the Tax Division staff were Gerald W. Padwe, Vice President-Taxation; Edward S. Karl, Director; end dean E Trompeter, Technical Manager. The IRS participants were led by Commissioner Margaret Milner Richardson, Deputy Commissioner Michael Dolan, Chief Counsel Stuart Brown and representatives from, among others, operations, forms & submission processing, strategic planning, customer service, appeals, disclosure litigation and the taxpayer advocate's office. A summary of the items discussed follows.

Meeting Highlights

* The Tax Division's Statements on Responsibilities in Tax Practice (SRTPs) constitutes a body of advisory opinion on what are appropriate standards of tax practice. The Division is considering an effort to make the SRTPs enforceable under the AICPA ethics program, rather than merely educational in nature, as they are today An update was given on the status of those efforts.

The Survey of Practitioner Attitudes Towards the IRS (April 1996) was undertaken by the Tax Division with the intent of providing the Service with constructive feedback on various IRS programs and functional areas. The Tax Executive Committee discussed with the Service the data presented in the survey's report.

* The creation of the National Commission on Restructuring the IRS and the Tax Division's formation of a task force to provide feedback to the Commission.

* Recent efforts by the Service to use AICPA publications to communicate with AICPA members. Articles that were published in the November 1996 issues of The Tax Adviser (see D.C. Currents, "IRS Cuts Could Have Affected Tax Practice,") and the Journal of Accountancy (see Tax Issues, "A Letter to the Profession [from Commissioner Richardson],"), for example, have been beneficial. Those efforts will continue.

* The IRS continues to...