Here is an excerpt from a blog post I wrote several months ago describing the conduct of an IRS agent that had prompted me to write a letter of complaint to the Commissioner of the IRS:
It happened again.
A-friggin-gain!!!!
On Friday a corporate client of mine wrote me the following email after she received a visit from an IRS collection agent:
Well he came and went. He told me that I shouldn’t have hired an attorney and wanted to know how much I paid Mr. Pappas.
He then began interrogating me and asking me detailed questions about my intentions, my finances and how I came to own the business.
I repeatedly told him that I was represented by an attorney and he continued to say that I didn’t need one and that I should not have hired one.
I felt intimidated and frightened so I tried as best as I could to answer his questions.
If that isn’t bad enough, he also proceeded to give her substantive legal advice (he is, of course, not a lawyer and even if he were, my 14 year old niece would be able to see that he has a glaringly obvious conflict of interest):
He told me that I should leave the keys to my business under the door mat and walk away from it. He then began advising me on what I should do about filing a legal claim against the people I bought the company from.
In April I published on this website my letter to Commissioner Doug Shulman regarding this incidence and several incidences I had experienced where IRS agents had ignored or otherwise disparaged my clients’ right to counsel.
I sent copies to Senator Charles Rangel (D-NY), Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), and the group manager of the agent (we’ll call him Agent X) about whom I was specifically complaining.
Below I discuss the responses (and non-responses) I received from the various individuals to whom I sent the letter and what I expect will happen in the future.
Where are we now?
Commissioner Shulman’s Office
The Commissioner sent me a letter saying that his office would look into the matter within 45 days.
I never received anything else from his office.
Senator Bill Nelson’s Office
Last week Senator Nelson’s office sent me a disclosure form that needed to be signed by my client before the Senator would investigate the matter.
It was signed and returned to his office yesterday.
Senator Charles Rangel’s Office
No response or acknowledgment of receipt.
Nina Olson, Taxpayer Advocate
No response or acknowledgment of receipt.
Agent X’s Group Manager
I received a telephone call from Agent X’s group manager telling me the following:
- Agent X had not been terminated from his employment (as the anti-retaliation rules of Section 1203(b)(6) of RRA 1998 seemed to require), and he was still handling the specific case from which my complaint arose.
- Because of Agent X’s privacy rights she could not tell me what actions the IRS had taken in response to my complaint about his conduct.
Agent X was not even removed from THIS case!
It is one thing for the IRS to choose not to fire Agent X, but to allow him to continue on the very case that is the subject of the complaint is, even for the IRS, shocking.
My complaint letter is not a frivolous one.
My client testified under penalties of perjury that Agent X told her that she should not hire and pay a lawyer. Then, almost in the same breath, he proceeded to give her the legal advice to formally dissolve her business.
There are least 3 possible egregious acts of misconduct here:
- Agent X is not a lawyer, yet he gave my client legal advice as if he were.
- Agent X knew the individual he was advising was represented by counsel, yet he gave her legal advice as if she were unrepresented.
- Even if Agent X were a lawyer, as an agent of the IRS he has a conflict of interest that would preclude him from advising the taxpayer.
Lawyers have been disbarred for continuing to advise clients without disclosing their conflicts of interest.
Read it again: Agent X is still the Revenue Agent of record in this case.
Stunning!
Where do we go from here?
I don’t expect to hear from the Commissioner’s office. He has pushed this case so far back down the ladder of authority that it has ended up precisely in the place it began, with Agent X the Revenue Agent in charge.
Likewise, I don’t expect to hear from Charlie Rangel’s office (he must be a reader of this blog).
Nina Olson is most likely prohibited by IRS procedural rules from getting involved at this point. I will try her again later, if need be.
Finally, I hope that Senator Nelson can at least persuade someone at the IRS to address the specific and detailed concerns raised in my letter.
The IRS is certainly aware that I am not the only tax practitioner who has been involved in a case where the IRS agent ignored a taxpayer’s right to counsel or disparaged that right in the same way Agent X has done here.
3 responses so far ↓
1 John Smith // Nov 15, 2009 at 8:32 am
To all American Taxpayers whether illegal or legal aliens who are paying taxes: The Tax Lawyer Blog and its founding tax attorney should be commended. He is right! Unfortunately, instead of hiring a tax attorney, I hired a tax CPA firm to re-do my tax returns. I dealt with a Rogue IRS Revenue Agent. You see, I spent over 24 years working for Uncle Sam investigating and assisting U.S. Attorney’s offices in prosectuting corrupt federal law enforcement officials. After my private accountant’s adjusted tax returns were rejected and after I spent a few thousands dollars paying a tax accountant firm for nothing, I decided to file my own Petition with the U.S. Tax Court. I feel like David v. Goliath. But so far I am driving at least four (4) IRS attorneys crazy. You see for years I have hired private attorneys for differents tasks, MSPB, EEOC, class action lawsuit of discrimination filed in US District Court. I have proposed a settlement out of court. I am waiting to hear from the IRS Attorneys and Appeals. I already have ready to file discovery requests for admissions, documents and interrogatories and a set of formal list of stipulations. Please don’t misunderstand me, if you have a complex tax case, just hire a tax attorney. Most tax CPA and Non-CPA tax accountants are afraid to fight for you and your rights and as a result, they don’t claim certain items that you are legally entitled to claim. I filed several complaints with TIGTA and my local US Senator. At the end a top TIGTA’s level official wrote a letter to my senator and lied to him. I am not a CPA but am a Certified Fraud Examiner and my expertise was sending corrupt federal law enforcement officials to prison. IRS and TIGTA assert and assume they are above the law. Soon is going to be re-election time for all U.S. Congress positions. Start writing to your local US Senator and House of Representative. Tell them WE BADLY NEED TO REVAMP THE IRS AND TIGTA. The Current IRS commissioner and TIGTA’s top management official must be replaced and we need another Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights….IV. IRC Section 1203 must be enforced by TIGTA and the IRS. Also, 2012 is just around the corner, write to President Barack Obama and tell him that if he wants a second term in office, he need to fire the heads of IRS and TIGTA.
2 Tom // Nov 27, 2009 at 3:25 pm
First the IRS is a collection agency and as such is subject to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Title 15 and should be treated as such. We have been using title 26 for years and going nowhere. Title 15 gives us many more options. I can help her respond under title 15. Second I would file a complaint with the local bar association against the agent for the unlawful practice of law. Perhaps that will get his/her attention.
3 ROBERT KENNY, ESQ // Mar 30, 2011 at 3:07 am
There are cases that say the FDCPA does not apply to tax collection, even by private tax collectors!
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