The National Taxpayer Advocate, in her annual report to Congress, proposed a "legislative fix" to an apparent gap in how refund statutes of limitation interact with the Internal Revenue Code provisions and IRS processes for suspending deadlines when there is an emergency declaration by the President - such as for the COVID pandemic. The proposal was in response to recent email advice by the IRS Office of Chief Counsel that would leave taxpayers unable to recover overpayments in certain situations. This post explains the interaction between the refund statue of limitations and the process for emergency declarations, the NTA proposal, and why that advice by IRS Counsel may have been wrong. While waiting for a legislative fix, could the IRS solve the problem by regulation? This post shows how that might work.