Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

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Tag Archives: TAS

During the USG Shutdown, @YourVoiceAtIRS Nina Olson and the TAS sent home!

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Can’t Stop The Machine: During Shutdown, IRS Computers Still Churn Out Tax Liens, Levies And Bills

It now turns out there is additional bad news for taxpayers, particularly those with IRS problems, known or unknown. Taxgirl, after studying the IRS’ preliminary shutdown plan, reported that National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson and 44 of her employees would continue working. But in the IRS’ final shutdown plan,  released Monday afternoon, not a single employee dedicated to protecting taxpayer rights was included in the 8,824  (out of  workforce of 94,516 ) kept on the job.

That unfortunate change was called to my attention by Olson herself, who emphasized she was “merely exercising my free speech rights as a citizen’’ and using her personal cell phone to do so. “I’m sitting at home with my two cats and my knitting,’’ she quipped.  Olson wasn’t just being cute; it would be a violation the Antideficiency Act  of 1884  for her to speak on her government issued Blackberry (she didn’t) or in her official capacity (she didn’t). A  violation could get her fired, fined or thrown in jail.

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National Taxpayer Advocate Identifies Priority Issues for Upcoming Year: Offshore issues AGAIN called out.

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IR-2013-63, June 26, 2013

TAS AREAS OF FOCUS

  • Establishing less draconian and more reasonable “settlement initiatives” for the millions of taxpayers who have legitimate reasons for overseas bank and financial accounts and whose failure to file reports was merely negligent.

Read more below:

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An #IRS #OVDI ORDEAL with a Happy Ending. An ‘Opt Out’ Success Story as Told by “Not that Lisa”

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“Not that Lisa” has just had her ‘Opt Out’ success story published at Jack Townsend blog. It is accompanied by his comments which I encourage you to read.

I came to know of Lisa during my dark days on Jack’s blog as “anon5Percent”. Later, due to her efforts to find me, I got to know her personally via phone and email conversations.  She started commenting here as Lisa and evolved to Not that Lisa to eliminate confusion between her and another commenter.

I could not be more pleased about this success, and only sorry for her that it has taken so much frustration, anxiety, expense, and LCUs, which still required the intervention of the TAS for the IRS to “do the right thing”. I asked her permission tonight, to also highlight her 30 month saga to add to the resource of self help material on Isaac Brock Society.

I thought it was important to headline this ‘ORDEAL’ as many places as possible. I think she is being too generous to call her escape from the IRS penalty extraction processing factory a mere ‘Odyssey’.  It is a total waste of taxpayers time and money for naught, and represents one of the reasons that ACA has called this abuse to the attention of the committees in Congress who are investigating IRS T-party scandal. We can not let this milestone pass as just another low profile comment on the OVDI Drudgery thread lost to a larger audience.

Below are the documents that she has made available to Isaac Brock Society. They are uploaded here for others to access and use as examples for their struggles.

Not that Lisa – FINAL My OVDI Odyssey

Not that Lisa – FINAL Opt Out letter

Not that Lisa  – FINAL Opt Out Reasonable Cause Arguments

Not tht Lisa –  FINAL Streamlined Program Acceptance Letter

Not that Lisa – FINAL Mitigated FBAR Level II Non-Willful Penalties

Not that Lisa – FINAL Letter 3800

What follows are her comments:

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Nina Olson, National Tax Advocate, under attack by Democrat Bob Kerrey in IRS / T-party targeting scandal

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Here, this should get your blood boiling.  Hat tip to @Tim who just drew my attention to this article at Politico.

Kerrey: IRS advocate to blame for scandal

I am just stunned by the chutz·pah of this Democrat to try and deflect political fallout on the Dems.

We need some Brockers to weigh in.

I am beginning to think this IRS scandal which broke Friday has some legs. It was above the fold on the front pages of two local Bellingham papers today.  I think we can use this attention to tell a broader story of IRS misdirected energies and persecution of American’s abroad with their OVDPs and FATCA administration! Continue reading →

Taxpayer advocate uses bully pulpit to blast IRS @politico by @laurennfrench

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Nina Olson is used to strangers in the supermarket complaining to her about their taxes at this time of year.

As the national taxpayer advocate, Olson’s job is to discover any way in which the IRS bureaucracy, or the tax laws passed by Congress, are harming taxpayers. And tax-filing season is when those ills are most easily detected.

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Nina Olson releases the 2012 National Tax Advocate Report to Congress.

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From the Press Release:

National Taxpayer Advocate Delivers Annual Report to Congress; Focuses on Tax Reform, IRS Funding and Identity Theft

WASHINGTON — National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson today released her 2012 annual report to Congress, identifying the need for tax reform as the overriding priority in tax administration. The Advocate also expressed concern that the Internal Revenue Service is not adequately funded to serve taxpayers and collect tax, and identified ways in which this chronic under-funding harms taxpayers and the public fisc. She also found that the IRS is not doing enough to assist victims of tax-related identity theft and return preparer fraud.

NUMBER ONE Problem:   The most serious problem facing taxpayers — and the IRS — is the COMPEXITY of the Internal Revenue Code (the “tax code”).

Yes, we all know that, but of special interest to many readers here is item number 8.

MSP 8:  The IRS’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Programs Discourage Voluntary Compliance by Those Who Inadvertently Failed to Report Foreign Accounts

Update from @Lisa.  Thank you.

MSP 15:  Challenges Persist for International Taxpayers as the IRS Moves Slowly to Address Their Needs

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Roger Conklin: 1099 problems vs FATCA problems….

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Roger shares a recent story about his difficulties in sorting out a small error with the IRS over 1099 reporting.  I think the story is instructive of greater difficulties to come, when the IRS is gathering “all account data” from Foreign Financial Insitutions (FFIs) plus foreign governments. Remember, this is not just “income related data” like the 1099.

We now see FATCA has expanded to 3 various models, FATCA Direct, FATCA Model I for 5 EU countries, and FATCA Model II for Switzerland and Japan.  More models to come?  So, reflect on Roger’s story below, and ask yourself, “So what could possibly go wrong?”  🙂   Ah, she’ll be ‘right, Mate! Trust us! LOL Continue reading →

Tax day: 1040 reasons you should know Nina Olson

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Just a quick post to draw your attention to this Christian Science Monitor story on Nina Olson of the TAS.

This lady should be Commissioner Shulman’s replacement, but that would be too logical for Congress.  Even if Obama were smart enough to do that, the Republicans would block her just to spite him.  That is how the political game is played.

‘Just Me’: A View From Inside the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program

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Just Me provides a case study report of his experience as a 2009 OVDP victim. It includes his letters to the IRS Commissioner, Douglas Shulman and his entire OVDP correspondence file including his TAS appeal.  It is offered as an insight and warning on what to expect should you choose this route back to U.S. Citizenship taxation compliance.  Updated March 19, 2012

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The OVDP Drudgery for Minnows

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Just Me offers advice to newbies to the subject of FBAR compliance and OVDP considerations.  To join or not to join.  That is the question.  This is a must read post.  

A link to his Case Study of Communication with the IRS through the entire 851 day process is here.

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