What do you mean, retire?

• Author: Fahey, Mary Lou
• Position: Or giving back to the tax system for more than six decades

TEI members never fail to amaze me with their zest for living and their desire to remain active in tax even after retirement. A few months ago, TEI's 1964-1965 President Morris Rinehart contacted us for some help. Morris does not have Internet access and asked if we could send him a copy of the procedure for filing a request for a private letter ruling. As secretary for his local Masonic Temple, he had a question about the definition of "gross receipts." The answer to the question would determine whether the lodge was required to file a Form 990.

We were glad to send Morris the information. A few days after mailing the revenue procedure, however, we received another call from Morris. Did we realize, he asked, that it would cost his lodge $8,700 just to file the request? The organization could not afford such a fee. (The reduced fee of $625 for smaller tax-exempt organizations had been eliminated about a year before Morris's call.)

After putting our heads together to find a solution, we asked Morris if he would mind if we referred the matter to Nina Olson, the IRS's National Taxpayer Advocate. Within a couple hours of receiving our email, Ms. Olson had assigned a member of her staff to work with Morris and his lodge to get an answer to his question. She also expressed disappointment that an organization such as Morris's lodge should ever be asked to pay such a fee.

Within a few weeks, Morris received a written response from an attorney within the IRS Office of Chief Counsel--without having to pay a fee. Morris wasn't exactly thrilled with the...