TAX PROCEDURE
University of Houston Law Cent

Summary of Course

This class covers the procedural aspects of dealing with the Internal Revenue Service, the agency that administers the federal tax system. The focus is from the private practitioner's perspective in assisting clients navigate the daunting administrative requirements. The class offers the following principal subjects:

• Administrative Organization of the IRS.
• The Regulatory Process -- IRS Pronouncements such as Regulations, Revenue Rulings, Technical Advice Memoranda and Private Letter Rulings
• IRS Audits, including use of IRS Administrative Summonses and Statutes of Limitations
  Penalties (Civil and Fraud) and Interest
• IRS Administrative Appeals
• Civil Tax Litigation with the IRS -- Tax Court, District Court, Court of Federal Claims, Courts of Appeals and United States Supreme Court.
• Collections, including IRS liens and levies
• Federal Tax Crimes, Methods of Proof and Investigative Techniques
• Ethics of Practice in the Tax Procedure Context

Course Book and Materials

Townsend Tax Procedure (Fall 2012 - No Footnotes)	This is the edition for the 2012 class. The class text has no footnotes. I do have a footnoted versions of the book but do not recommend it for the class as the footnotes develop thoughts and provide citations that are not important for the class.  I do offer both versions for purchase here.  However, for students in Jack Townsend's class at the University of Houston School of Law for Fall 2012, please email me at jack@tjtaxlaw.com for a special offer.
Townsend Tax Procedure Materials (Fall 2012)	These are materials (case and law review articles) that I will ask the Students to read outside the text.  I will assign these materials to students in the class.
Townsend Tax Procedure Forms (Fall 2012)	These are the forms I want students to read as we reach them in the text in the class.
Student Questionnaire	Fill in this pdf file, save and email to me the file.  You should be able to email by clicking the button at the top.  If that does not work, then save the file as pdf and email it to me at jack@tjtaxlaw.com.
For extra reading to round out your tax procedure education (you need to get good at both of these):    Strunk & White, The Elements of Style (4th ed. 2000)    Frankfurt on Bullshit (1st ed. 2005)	Strunk & White from Amazon.com Frankfurt from Amazon.com (although an earlier, less bullshit version from the internet can be downloaded here.)

FOR REVISIONS OR ERRATA TO THE BOOK AND OTHER TAX PROCEDURE DISCUSSIONS, GO TO JACK'S FEDERAL TAX PROCEDURE BLOG HERE.

1.    The course combines text materials, code sections and case and other materials.  The cases are relatively few and are designed to encourage active student participation in the class.  Students will be pre-assigned cases for class presentation.

2.    The text (non-footnoted version for class) is 539 pages (2012 version).  The text will thus be, on average, less than 50 pages per 2 hour class.  There is more reading, however.  You should generally read the Code Sections that are cited in the text (not in the footnotes for those who may work from the footnoted versions).  I expect students to read and understand the key Code Sections.  The Code Sections may add an additional 5-10 pages per class (probably less).  I also will assign cases and articles for you to read for some classes.  The cases and articles are in the download materials above.  Cases will be assigned so that students will know in advance when they will be called upon.

3.   The classes will not require an extraordinary amount of reading for law school.  The classes will, hopefully, require that you think about the larger process of the revenue function of Government and how it interfaces with the citizen.  The class is not designed to teach you a lot of nitpicking rules, with exception upon exception and detail upon detail.  You will suffer that punishment when you become a tax lawyer.  Instead, the class will teach you broad principles and introduce you to the highlights of tax procedure.  I hope to engage your thinking and reasoning capacities rather than your memorization capacities.

4.   The text and the materials are in Adobe Acrobat format.  Many of you will already be familiar with that format because it is ubiquitous in business and on the Code.  For best use of the file, you should have a recent version of the free Acrobat Reader (8 or higher) or a version of Adobe Acrobat (the latter of which is not free). 

5.  In the digital files, you can navigate around in several ways using the Acrobat Reader or full Acrobat version.  Perhaps the most useful if working from the table of contents is to use the the bookmarks feature to see the same outline of the book (like a table of contents) that you can then click to move to the relevant text.  The pdf files are also searchable using the standard find tool or more advanced search tools availble in some programs that read Acrobat files.

6.   If you prefer to review from a hardcopy, you can print out the materials.  My recommendation is that you not print out indiscriminately because the number of pages is great.  Plus, if you are an incorrigible note taker and have the ability to leave notes on the pdf pages, you will likely fine the pdf file better to work with

Fall 2012 Course Schedule and Assignments  

The class will be taught on Thursday evenings from 5:30 to 7:10 pm.  (if the class determines it wants a ten minute break in the middle, the class will go to 7:20 pm).

Unit 1 8/30	Introduction to Class Ch. 1 Purpose and Scope Ch. 2 Organization and Structure of the Federal Revenue Function Ch. 3 Taxpayer Access to Information - FOIA and the Privacy Act Ch. 4 Confidentiality and Disclosure of Tax Return Information
Unit 2 9/6	Ch. 5 Returns    Read the Williams v. Commissioner and Badaracco Cases Ch. 6 Statutes of Limitation (through p. 129 - IV. Overpayments starts on following page) Case Assignments: -   Badaracco - All Students   Williams v. Commissioner - All Students
Unit 3 9/13	Ch. 6 Statutes of Limitations balance of Chapter (starting with p. 129 IV. Overpayments) Ch. 7 Interest Case Assignments    Brockamp - Anderson, Browning, Chavez. Damys, Hall, Ighalo    Estate of Branson - Kwan, Lawal, Spellman, Stfort, Williamson, Taylor
Unit 4 9/20	Ch. 8 Penalties     Read Addington, Boyle, and Streber Case Assignments:    Addington - Lawal, Spellman, Stfort, Williamson    Boyle - Hall, Ighalo, Kwan    Strebert - Anderson, Browning, Chavez, Damys
Unit 5 9/27	Ch. 9 The Examination Function Case Assignments:    Powell - Hall, Ighalo, Kwan, Lawal    Gertner -  Spellman, Stfort, Williamson    Frederick - Anderson, Browning, Chavez, Damys
Unit 6 10/4	Ch. 9 The Examination Function (cover any carryover matters) Ch. 10. Appeals Ch. 11 Notice of Deficiency Ch. 12 Litigation     Additional Required Reading for 12.III.C. Injunctions in Tax Litigation, beginning on p. 387:  "When Is A Tax Not a Tax?" (Tax Procedure Blog 8/2/12), here.
Unit 7 10/11	Ch. 13 Assessment Procedures & Ch. 14 Collection Procedures (to p. 435 - XIV Outsourcing the Collection Function)    Drye - Browning, Chavez, Damys    Rodgers - Hall, Ighalo, Kwan, Anderson   Williams - Lawal, Spellman, Stfort, Williamson
8 10/18	Ch. 14 Collection Procedures  (from p. 425 - XII.  Outsourcing the Collection Function to End of Chapter)
9 10/25	Ch. 15 Partnership and S Corporation Audit and Litigation Procedures Ch. 16 Overpayments
10 11/1	Ch. 17.  Miscellaneous Case Assignments    Compaq Computer Cases (Tax Court and Fifth Circuit)- All students
11 11/8	Function at JAT House  ()The actual date will be assigned later and the general revelry may be interrupted for a more or less scripted dramatic presentation of the Richardson and Corneel articles assigned elsewhere on this list)
12 11/15	Ch. 18  Trends in Enforcement Efforts Ch. 19  Ethics, Malpractice and Tax Procedure Total text pages - 9 (but see extra reading materials)    Read the two articles in the class materials file -- All Students.       Richardson, Audit Avoidance via Intent Modification -- Is Fred Corneel onto Something ... or Not, 2001 TNT 131-93       Corneel, Audit Avoidance: A Response to David Richardson, 2001 TNT 131-91    Also read the excerpt from an article I prepared which can be downloaded here.  These excerpts track the scenario in the articles and present some other related materials.
13 11/29	Read Principal Life Insurance Company v. United States, 95 Fed. Cl. 786 (2010), which is in the materials.  In some ways, this is an esoteric case, but it pulls together certain key concepts, including the ubiquitous Section 6213(a), the so called prohibition on assessment that has been a standard theme in the class.  I encourage each student to work their way through this gem of a decision.  This is a specific assignment and therefore may be a subject for the examination.
14 12/6	Review Class Text Table of Contents with Strike Outs for Examination, here. Exam Sample Qs & As from Past Examinations.  Qs are here; As are here.
	Tax Procedure Exam -

Update Materials. These materials are intended for students of the course for supplemental reading (i.e., in addition to the coursebook and the supplement to the coursebook).

Update for Examination

• Prior Exams.  I encourage you to review the past examinations by clicking here.  By reviewing the examinations, you will understand my question style and be able to figure out the types of responses I want.
• Exam Tips.
  • You can bring with you the casebook, a code and your personal notes. Nothing else.  Any of these can be in digitial or harcopy formats.
  • You cannot access the internet.  So, if you want Code sections, I strongly encourage you to have either a hard copy or a copy on your computer.
  • I hope you will take the examination by computer.  You will not be required to use the examination software provided by the school.  This means you can work in your word processor of choice.  However, if any of you have non-mainstream word processing software, you need to clear it with me in advance.  Mainstream is Word or WordPerfect, although the open source or other software that permits you to save in Word or Wordperfect formats is acceptable.
  • I recommend that you outline and test your answer on scrap paper before writing it down in the exam booklet. When I begin reading your answer I give credit that you start out knowing where you are going and how you will get there. Meandering answers are not desired. 

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