Panelists Lament Loss of Experience At IRS Exempt Organizations Unit

Yesterday's BNA Daily Report for Executives [subscription required] reports on a Nov. 15 conference on tax exempt organizations sponsored by the American Law Institute and American Bar Association at which speakers lamented the current situation in the Internal Revenue Service's Exempt Organizations unit. Here are some excerpts from the BNA report:

Most of the senior IRS officials who worked in the unit have either retired or been pushed out as a result of the May Tea Party scandal, said Marc Owens, a partner with Caplin & Drysdale.... “Everyone from the commissioner down to the director of rulings and agreements in the exempt organizations function were replaced by people with essentially no tax administration experience,” he said. “No experience interpreting the Internal Revenue Code, no experience dealing with taxpayers that apply the code, no experience in doing what the exempt organizations function has done and is in charge of doing.”... One of the impacts of less-experienced employees in recent years has been a dwindling number of technical advice memorandums, the panelists said. TAMs move audit cases to the IRS's national office....