Dear Friends,

In this issue of the Taxpayer Rights Digest, we discuss the wide range of programs we have scheduled for the rest of the summer.  There’s quite a lot planned, so please read through this – I’m sure you’ll find something that will interest you. 

First up, tomorrow (July 11) at noon Eastern Daylight Time, we have our next Tax Chat! in the Transforming Tax Administration series.  The topic for this chat is Notices, Nudges, & Communication.  We have some really excellent guests:  Michael Hallsworth from the Behavioural Insight Team, Julie Payne from IRS Chief Counsel and the IRS Transformation Office, and Josh Beck from the Taxpayer Advocate Service.  Michael will discuss the work BIT has done around the world as well as with US federal and state agencies on notice and communication strategies, and the role of administrative burden, nudge, and sludge in driving behavior.  Josh will share TAS’s work on rights-based notices and communications, and he will also discuss the IRS settlement with the National Federation of the Blind regarding communications for the visually-impaired.  And Julie will provide us with background on the current state of IRS notice development and the plans for future improvements, in line with the IRS Strategic Operating Plan.

If you’ve already signed up for the Transforming Tax Administration Tax Chat! series, there is no need to re-register.  We will be sending the zoom link for the program to you automatically.  If you haven’t registered for the series, you can do so here.  

We’ve also scheduled some additional Tax Chats! in our series:

Monday July 17^th:       IRS Collection Policies & Procedures

Wednesday July 19^th:  US International & International Taxpayers

Tuesday July 25^th:       Low Income Taxpayer Clinics and VITA Programs

Tuesday August 15^th: Penalty Policies & Procedures

There are two other Tax Chats! we’re planning – on administrative law and public participation; and on Appeals, the Tax Court, and alternative dispute resolution.  So stay tuned for the dates for those chats.

If you’ve missed earlier chats in the series, we’ve uploaded the videos to the first six chats to our Youtube channel.  You can watch them on Youtube here, or you can access them on our Transforming Tax Administration webpage here.  (Please subscribe to our Youtube channel so you get updates immediately when new material is uploaded….) 

These are really great chats, if I do say so myself.  I learned an enormous amount from our guests as host to the chats, but as I’ve watched them again in the editing process, I’ve picked up so much more information and nuance the second and third times around.  Our guests have been excellent and bring decades (cumulative centuries, really….) of insight and experience to our topics.  The last two chats we’ve posted on Artificial Intelligence and Tax Administration, in particular, are really important contributions to the field of tax administration.

And finally … on September 13, the Center for Taxpayer Rights is holding its day-long conference on Transforming Tax Administration.  This day-long conference will be the culmination of our Tax Chat! series of the same name.  I am thrilled to announce that IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has agreed to be our keynote speaker!  (Talk about burying the lede.)  So save the date – we will be sharing more information about the agenda and how to register for the free conference, which will be held at the Skadden Arps law firm as well as live-streamed via Zoom.

The conference and the entire Tax Chat! series is funded with the generous support of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.

So, as I said, there’s a lot planned for the rest of the summer.  We hope to see you at the programs!

All the best,

Nina

Nina E. Olson
Executive Director