In 2015, when I was the National Taxpayer Advocate at the US Internal Revenue Service, I proposed convening an International Conference on Taxpayer Rights (ICTR), at which government officials, members of the judiciary, tax practitioners, and academics would come together and address issues of importance to tax administration through the lens of taxpayer rights.  The inaugural conference was held in Washington DC on November 18 and 19, 2015, with the theme Taxpayer Rights: the Foundation for Effective Tax Administration. Upon my retirement from the IRS, the Center for Taxpayer Rights assumed responsibility for the ICTR.

 Over the years, the ICTR has traveled the world, going in-person to Vienna, Austria; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States; Santiago, Chile; and Antwerp, Belgium.  Not to be deterred by the pandemic, we held virtual conferences hosted in Pretoria, South Africa; Athens, Greece; and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.  We’ve covered topics including taxpayer rights as human rights; taxpayer rights in developing countries; taxpayer rights in audits, in administrative appeals, in collection activities; and the right to judicial review.  And we have added to every conference a free workshop focusing on taxpayer advocates, ombuds, and tax clinics.

A decade later, the Center for Taxpayer Rights is pleased to be coming back to the US and Washington DC, with the conference again hosted by the Harvard Law School and its Federal Tax Clinic.  These are challenging times for tax administration around the world and particularly in the United States.  With the rapid digitalization of tax administration, there often seems to be a blind rush to “efficiency” and “return on investment” at the expense of effectiveness and human interaction, leading to a nameless and faceless bureaucracy that is easy to demonize.

Thus, it is more important than ever for the 10^th International Conference on Taxpayer Rights to focus on the theme Taxpayer Rights, Trust, and the Rules of Law, as a reminder to us all about the fundamental principles underlying tax administration.  For this conference we have drawn together panelists from many different disciplines and areas of practice —  psychology and human rights as well as law, economics, and history.

We’ve worked hard to keep the registration fees for the conference at the same level since 2019 – quite an achievement.  We’re continuing to offer discounts for virtual attendees from non-OECD member countries, as well as discounts for LLM/JD/PhD students attending virtually.  In light of the recent firings of US IRS and Department of Treasury employees, we are able to offer some of these people a scholarship for attending virtually. Finally, the law firm Kostelanetz LLP is funding two travel scholarships to the conference for recent hires from US Low Income Taxpayer Clinics.

We know that for many people not living in the United States, they may have concern coming to the US at this time.  I can only say that there are many of us who are standing up for the rule of law in this country.  (See, e.g., the initial complaint in Center for Taxpayer Rights v. IRS, filed in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia by Democracy Forward on behalf of the Center and three other organizations.)  The Center is taking a stand against actions that are unauthorized under the law, and this conference is a sign of our determination to not acquiesce. 

The Center for Taxpayer Rights has stood by so many groups advocating for a fair and just tax system and tax administration in so many countries over the years, working with embattled folks, people trying to bring about change against overwhelming odds.  We hope that our colleagues from other countries now will stand by those of us in the US who are now fighting for democracy in our own country.  We need your support.

We are proud of the last ten years and what we have contributed to the advancement of taxpayer rights and tax administration domestically and around the world.  We look forward to continuing the conference and our work over the next decade, and to seeing you, our colleagues, in Washington DC this June, either in-person or virtually.

All the best,

Nina

Nina E. Olson
Executive Director