This spring, the Tax Section will publish the 8th edition of its popular Effectively Representing Your Client Before the IRS. First published by the Section in 2000, this comprehensive collection of everything a tax professional should know when dealing with the Internal Revenue Service is used widely by attorneys, accountants, and enrolled agents who represent clients before the IRS in controversy matters.
The new edition includes updates on the changes in tax law that have occurred since the last edition was published in 2017. There are new chapters on power of attorney, taxpayer IDs, and administrative law in tax cases. The new edition also adds two new chapters on offers in compromise and collection due process appeals, expanding on the collections chapter.
Written and updated by experienced tax controversy lawyers, this two-volume reference provides in-depth discussions of the law, replete with realistic examples and hundreds of practice tips to aid tax practitioners during all stages of representation before the IRS in controversy matters, including exam, appeals, Tax Court, refund actions, and collection matters. The companion online supplemental materials include select audio and video recordings from ABA Tax Section meetings, supplemented with meeting materials relevant to practice.
The new edition is edited by Christine Speidel and Patrick W. Thomas, both of whom served as deputy editors-in-chief of the 7th edition. Derek B. Wagner continues as the book’s research editor.
Speidel is an assistant professor of law at Villanova’s Charles Widger School of Law and is director of the Federal Tax Clinic there, where she teaches students to practice law by representing needy members of Villanova’s neighboring communities in federal tax disputes. Speidel previously directed the Vermont Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic.
Thomas is an associate clinical professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School and director of the Notre Dame Tax Clinic, which he founded in 2016. He trains and supervises law students representing low-income clients in disputes with the IRS. Thomas was previously a staff attorney at Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic, in Indianapolis.
“Effectively Representing is an excellent reference manual for beginning and intermediate practitioners covering the important mechanics of representing individuals in federal tax controversies and collection matters,” said Speidel. “Chapters are written by exceptional practitioners from both private practice and from nonprofit low-income taxpayer clinics.”
“We’ve worked over the past year to include updates stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and the response thereto from both Congress and the IRS,” added Thomas. “These topics range from the Economic Impact Payments to the Service’s new electronic power of attorney submission procedures. While it seems that each new week brings new developments on this front, we’ve strived to ensure that the final book is fully up to date.”
Wagner is an attorney advisor at the United States Tax Court. He previously served as an associate attorney at Daniel Rosenfelt & Associates and pro bono counsel on the ABA Tax Section staff. Wagner also served as research editor of the seventh edition.
A total of 72 authors updated this edition, and Wagner used a team of 26 reviewers to ensure citation and format correctness.
“Effectively Representing is an important Tax Section publication with its origins in the efforts of early tax clinics to provide a manual to guide them,” noted Keith Fogg, Vice Chair of Publications. “Twenty years later, with more than 10 times as many clinics, the book still serves as the primary resource for most clinics. The Tax Section is pleased to provide a free copy to each clinic. The generous donation of the book and the work of dozens of clinicians and nonclinicians volunteering their time to create the book bind the clinic community together and bind the community to the Tax Section, which has been a source of assistance to low-income taxpayer clinics since their inception almost 50 years ago. The Section is proud of this connection and of its members’ continued high level of public service.”
Effectively Representing Your Client Before the IRS is available for sale in the ABA store. ■