The Atlanta Lawyer May 2015 | Page 43

section update Tax Law Section By Murray Saylor Chair of the Tax Law Section The Saylor Law Firm LLP [email protected] T he 2015 tax season is over, or at least the initial due date, April 15, has passed. That’s when most individual income tax returns are filed. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reports that as of April 17 over 134 million individual tax returns were filed. About a quarter of those tax returns were filed during the last week before the due date. While we are in the tax return extension period which ends on October 15, comments are already being made about this year’s tax filings. The IRS representatives report they are doing the best they can with what Congress has given them. However, the service level provided by the IRS has been described as the worst in recent history. “Service level” includes such things as how long it takes IRS representatives to answer the phone, and how often IRS representatives’ answers to inquiries are correct. The frequency of IRS audits is apparently lower than usual and lower than at any time in the past sixty years. The definition of an audit may be quite different than it was sixty years ago and even different than twenty years ago. Most of the IRS enforcement is by mail and directed to a particular part of a tax return. For example, there may be an IRS request to provide by mail or fax support for all travel and entertainment expenses. Additionally, the IRS matches documents provided by employers, banks and investment companies to information reported on tax returns. Electronic tax return filing (eFiling) no doubt streamlines the matching process. Some good comes from a quick IRS inquiry. If something is obviously overlooked, the IRS will deal with it before interest and penalties get very high. Even so, nobody is happy getting a letter from the IRS. that individual health care responsibility was met. Despite all the aggravation surrounding the US tax system, Americans are known as the most compliant taxpayers in the world. The Tax Law Section custom is that officers serve in each position for two years. May marks the end of my two year term as Chair of the Section. I appreciate the opportunity of serving and thank the officers who served with me, Vice Chair, Julian Fortuna, Secretary/Treasurer, Scott Wright, and Immediate Past Chair Brian Bodker as well as the eight at-large board members. We have had several well attended programs focusing on both federal and Georgia tax matters. The Section has had joint programs with other Atlanta Bar sections, the State Bar tax section, the Georgia Society of CPAs, and financial planners. The Section has supported Atlanta Bar Programs by attending Bar wide events and contributing to the Bar Foundation and to Bar marketing initiatives. I wish Julian Fortuna well as the next Chair of the Section. Finally, Larry O’Neil was recently appointed by Governor Deal as administrative law judge for the Georgia Tax Tribunal. We all wish him well in providing Georgians the opportunity to be heard in a court dedicated to handling Georgia tax issues. I previously wrote about implementation of the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) in part through the tax collection system. As it turns out, compliance with Obama Care was a non-event for people who had qualifying health insurance for all of 2014 and were not eligible to have the insurance cost subsidized by the government. All that had to be done was to check a box indicating The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association May 2015 THE ATLANTA LAWYER 43