 Internal Revenants of IRS Tax News! IRS Appeals Invites Input on Enhancing Video Conference Options for Taxpayers and Tax Professionals. Tell you my opinion, video conference. It sounds like it's just an excuse for the IRS to set up monitoring cameras in taxpayers' homes. But maybe I'm just paranoid. Maybe it's a good idea. I don't know. Anyways, first an attempt at a joke. I'm just trying to keep my nose clean these days. I'm trying to keep your nose clean, you understand? But it's not easy, man. Okay, oh boy. When you've also got to keep it to the grindstone. He's really been putting his nose to the grindstone. I mean, that grindstone's dirty. Dirty, dirty, dirty. How the heck can you keep your nose clean while also keeping it to a grimy grindstone? That's what I want to know. That's, that's impossible. That's nothing. Maybe if I keep my nose to the grimy grindstone long enough, it'll clean the grime off the grindstone so the grindstone will no longer make my nose dirty. Allowing me to keep my nose clean while also keeping it to the no longer grimy grindstone. I got it. However, I'm thinking it's more likely the grimy grindstone will just grind off my nose completely. And then where will I be? And where will Super Dan be that? At that point, I won't be able to keep my nose clean or to the grindstone. And that would be horrible. All expenses paid, full medical, dental, tooties, the works. I would say that there must be some sort of horrible catch. I mean, just look at what happened to Michael Jackson after he lost his nose. Without sex ed, kids can wind up sexually confused. Just look at Michael Jackson. Everything went downhill from there, man. It was all downhill from there. And I know what you're thinking. I know what you're thinking. Going downhill can be totally fun if you're like on a skateboard or something. But I'm talking about a hill you don't want to go down here. That's what I'm talking about because there's like bad stuff at the bottom of the hill. Oh, there's just too much bad stuff in here to fit into a single sketch. Possibly some jerk looking to take your skateboard down there or something. Especially not some jerk who never had the guts to try to be anything more than a popsicle hustler. IR 2022-15 for August 18, 2022, Washington. The IRS Independent Office of Appeals invites public input on best practices for conducting video conferences with taxpayers and tax professionals who have cases pending before appeals. Appeals mission is to resolve federal tax disputes without litigation in a way that's fair and impartial to taxpayers and the government. If a case qualifies for an appeal, the office will review the issues with a fresh objective perspective and schedule a conference with the taxpayer or their representative. Appeals offers conferences by telephone, video or in person and can also resolve taxpayers' disputes through correspondence. Generally, it's the taxpayers or representatives' choice how they meet with appeals. The type of conference chosen doesn't impact appeals decision. Employees can successfully resolve taxpayer disputes with the IRS using each type of conference. To meet taxpayer needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, appeals expanded cases to video conferences. There's a link to that here. A video conference allows taxpayers to be both seen and heard to visually share documents without going to the appeals office. During the pandemic, appeals received positive feedback from taxpayers and tax professionals about availability and utility of video conferencing. So typically it does add a level of compatibility oftentimes in some cases to actually meet with someone that when you're going through the appeals process possibly going through it by phone is a little bit different. Obviously communication through the phone is a little bit different than communication in person. Communication by mail or email is a little bit different. And then communication by a video conference is not the same as being in person clearly but it might give you more of a personal touch to kind of understand the problems and move forward in some cases depending on your circumstances. So that may be an option worth taking a look at. So video conferences will remain an option in appeals with the return of IRS employees to the office this summer. Appeals is pleased to resume in-person conferences along with virtual options to accommodate taxpayers preferred choice of conference. You got the public input sought for permanent video conference guidance in March 2021 and the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic appeals issues interim guidance. There's a link to that here requiring employees to conduct video conferences with requested or when requested by taxpayers or their representatives. The guidance describes in detail the employee responsibilities for scheduling and conducting the video conference produce procedures for verifying authorized participants and necessary technology prerequisites. So clearly if you're setting up a video conference you want to make sure you've got the necessary tools in order to do it and be able to get at the meeting and get things moving with it as efficiently as possible. You want to use the tool to your advantage as much as you can. So the guidance also includes basic recommendations for establishing a professional meeting environment such as reducing extraneous background distractions muting audio when not speaking to avoid interruptions and ensuring appeals employees names are displayed for taxpayers. So again one of the things that when you obviously meet in person with people as you get kind of that more personal touch which could have you know benefits in some cases and so on as you as you're going through these processes. So if you're trying to get a similar kind of benefit online as opposed to basically talking to someone on the phone you want to make sure that your connection is as clear as possible that you can have everything working as well as it can to maximize your benefits of using that tool. So as appeals prepares to update the internal revenue manual with permanent guidance for conducting video conferences and updates to the video conferencing platform technology Microsoft Teams is what they use so you might have some familiar with that possibly they welcome input from taxpayers and tax professionals on how video conference technology can best be used in a taxpayers appeals hearing appeals has already heard some common themes from taxpayers and tax professionals when managed efficiently video conferences can often provide a better taxpayer experience than a telephone conference. And I think you know this is would seem natural to me because again if you were able to meet someone in person usually people are able to communicate better and possibly come away if they're if they're both looking to come up to a good result then if you're talking by phone for example because obviously you're missing a huge amount of cues some of which might be able to be picked up from the video conferencing so it has possibilities so some taxpayers feel they're better able to present their case. So again part of the legal process is not just black and white you're actually dealing with human beings here that are reading the cases and if you can if you can appeal to them and see that you're doing so in good faith you know that that holds weight. So the role of appeals employee leading the conference is critical so the employee should ensure every participant is introduced and participants turn on their cameras so obviously to do this kind of process the benefit of the of this process over the video over a telephone conference is the cameras right so you're able to to see facial expressions when you're negotiating with people which again might be something that you like or dislike or not you want to use it to whatever advantage you think might be there and within the law with regards to the processes offered so video conferences that allow for screen sharing of documents can lead to more comprehensive discussions for issues and potentially earlier resolutions so obviously if you're explaining something to someone it's and you're able to show the screen and show them the document and say hey look Iris agent this is what I'm talking about here. You're usually able you know to explain more complicated matters is more easily and hopefully if it's just an issue about interpretation of what's what what is happening then screen sharing can be a use a very useful tool so taxpayers for whom video conferencing technology is challenge should not be disadvantaged by their inability to participate in an appeals conference by video appeal should endeavor to keep techniques and technical requirements for video conferences to a minimum and ensure other channels for conducting on appeals conference such as person or by telephone remain available for these taxpayers so appeals welcomes comments on all aspects of video conferencing to help inform IRS policies for conducting video conferences with taxpayers into the future public comments can be sent to and there's an email here so you can check it out by the by Wednesday November 16 2022 so overall and I would think that that process could be a useful tool the thing that some people might worry about of course is that the iris might be leaning towards going to that tool and basically removing the other options that were previously available which could be could be good or could be bad you would think that video conferencing would be more efficient from an iris perspective than physical meetings for example and obviously people that are representative CPAs and lawyers that are doing representative type of work have a different structure involved some will benefit some will not if you if you move from a standpoint of people representing in person versus video conferences and this kind of stuff so people will have their own interests involved in it but so you can you can tell those interest to the IRS and tell them what you think and so there's a web email here and there'll be a link to this in the description so you can pick that up if you want to take a look at it