Copyright (c) 2008 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book Recent documents in Leslie Book en-us Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:37:59 PST 3600 http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/13 http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/13 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:48:25 PDT Leslie M. Book http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/12 http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/12 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:47:22 PDT Leslie M. Book http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/11 http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/11 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:45:22 PDT Leslie M. Book http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/10 http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/10 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:44:46 PDT Leslie M. Book http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/9 http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/9 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:42:58 PDT This article discusses the intersection of tax and poverty law. Its focus is the earned income tax credit ("EITC"), now the most important federal program in terms of lifting America's children out of poverty and an important component of welfare reform. It reveals how the Internal Revenue Service's administration of the EITC creates system-wide challenges for our nation's lower-income taxpayers. This article integrates the substance and procedure of the EITC, and argues that the IRS compliance regime places the rights of lower-income taxpayers at risk. While there has been significant academic and governmental attention to noncompliance among taxpayers claiming the EITC, the failure to identify the risks that the existing administration of the laws places on eligible taxpayers weakens the overall effectiveness of the EITC and has pernicious effects on the working poor taxpayers intended to benefit from the EITC. Leslie M. Book http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/8 http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/8 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:42:27 PDT This article examines the scope of the low income taxpayers' compliance problem. It also reveals why in a period of remarkably low levels of government tax compliance activity, the IRS compliance effort toward lower-income taxpayers has been particularly vigorous. The article examines in greater detail noncompliance with respect to the earned income tax credit, and, building on the work of sociologists Robert Kidder and Craig McEwen, explores the likely causes of the high levels of noncompliance. The article examines some of the policy implications of noncompliance among lower-income taxpayers. In particular, it argues that the government is not vigilant enough to root out intentional abuse. The government dedicated few resources on the ground to identifying purposeful taxpayer abuse. IRS reform and budgetary pressures resulted in remote correspondence-based compliance initiatives staffed by low-level IRS employees. At the same time, the positive assistance that Congress and the IRS have put in place are not sufficiently targeted to lower-income taxpayers, nor are they appropriately balanced with the IRS's traditional deterrence measures. Leslie M. Book http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/7 http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/7 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:41:58 PDT In this report, Book examines the recent controversy surrounding the IRS's proposal to implement a controversial earned income tax credit (EITC) compliance initiative. Professor Book notes that underlying the controversy is a series of unanswered and often unasked questions. Book believes that the compliance problem is significant, but recommends that full implementation of the IRS's initiative is inappropriate given the many questions that still need answering. Leslie M. Book http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/6 http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/6 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:41:21 PDT Since the enactment of the Internal Revenue Service Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, low-income tax clinics (LITCs) have grown significantly. Now numbering more than 100 and serving thousands of taxpayers, LITCs have reached a critical mass, or a so-called tipping point. Now, Book argues, to reach the many thousands of unrepresented low-income taxpayers in controversies with the IRS, LITCs need additional funding and continued support in the form of publicity from the IRS before they ensure that those often outside society's mainstream have the access to high-quality representation that is the promise of section 7526. This article is based, in part, on Book's written testimony on low-income taxpayer clinics before the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, presented on July 12, 2001 (Doc 2001-19387 (7 original pages), 2001 TNT 137-24). Leslie M. Book http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/5 http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/5 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:39:45 PDT Leslie M. Book http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/4 http://works.bepress.com/leslie_book/4 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:34:17 PDT In this essay, Professor Book reveals how the gulf between perceptions and reality in tax collection determinations. For example, the essay faults the modern IRS practice of over-emphasizing centralized decision-making, with its belief that almost all collection policies should be categorized as inventory management. The essay suggests how that approach contributes to (i) risk of erroneous government actions and (ii) decreased taxpayer satisfaction with IRS decisions. Mindful, however, that collection determinations involve millions of agency decisions, many of which do not benefit from additional adversarial procedural protections, the essay suggests that policy makers should calibrate procedural protections by balancing various factors, including the private interest at stake, the risk of depriving that interest through the procedures used, as well as the probable value of additional safeguards, and the government's interest. The essay also critiques the recent Tax Court case of Robinette v. Commissioner, and the Tax Court's application of the abuse of discretion standard to tax collection determinations. Arguing that allowing parties to introduce evidence in judicial appeals of collection determinations is inconsistent with administrative law jurisprudence, the essay reveals that Robinette ultimately places taxpayer interests at risk by deemphasizing systemic incentives. Robinette provides cover for a judicial usurping of agency functions, which may provide the means to correct for error in individual cases, but will not create additional judicial pressure to improve agency practice. The essay suggests that as a matter of policy and law, the Tax Court should identify CDP cases involving collection determinations as informal adjudications, subject to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Leslie M. Book