Volunteers Provide Valuable Advice to 16 Taxpayers at Problem-Solving Day

The ABA Taxation Section’s Pro Bono & Tax Clinics Committee held a very successful problem-solving day in conjunction with the Midyear Meeting in San Francisco, California in January 2024. Pro bono volunteers who were attending the Midyear Meeting had the opportunity to meet with taxpayers at the law offices of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP to discuss their federal and California state tax issues.

To prepare for the problem-solving day, the local San Francisco Low-Income Taxpayer Clinics at the Justice & Diversity Center of the Bar Association of San Francisco, UC Law San Francisco, and the Chinese Newcomers Service Center worked together to recruit taxpayers who might benefit from a consultation with a tax lawyer, sending flyers to community organizations and inviting taxpayers who may have recently called the clinics for services. The IRS Chief Counsel offices in Sacramento and San Francisco also invited taxpayers who had upcoming cases before the U.S. Tax Court in San Francisco. 

Sixteen taxpayers and nineteen Tax Section volunteers attended the event. The taxpayers had a variety of tax issues they needed help to resolve, including cases before the U.S. Tax Court, tax-related identity theft, and unpaid tax debt. Several taxpayers showed up with letters they had received from the Service or various California tax agencies, unsure why they had received them. Regardless of the issue, taxpayers had the opportunity to sit with one or more Taxation Section members to discuss their cases and receive expert guidance on how to approach their tax issues.

The Local Taxpayer Advocate, Kelly Rhone, was also in attendance at the event. She helped connect taxpayers with case advocates at her office in Oakland, California, to receive information about their Service accounts and request transcripts to be sent to the taxpayers. 

The event was an overwhelming success. Taxpayers we spoke to during and after the event expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to have someone listen to their story and meet with someone face-to-face to talk about their tax matters. 

This problem-solving day was the third such in-person event held in conjunction with an ABA Taxation Section Meeting, continuing the excellent service to the community and providing the opportunity for pro bono work to Taxation Section members. The first such event was in San Francisco during the Fall Meeting in 2019, with the second in San Diego during the 2023 Midyear Meeting.