IRS Independent Office of Appeals: What is their function within the IRS?
IRS Independent Office of Appeals
What is their function within the IRS?
Appeals is an independent function of the IRS, separate from the division of the IRS that proposed the changes. It is the only level of administrative appeal within the IRS. Appeals employees fairly and impartially settle disputes between taxpayers and other divisions of the IRS by considering the arguments made by both sides, and then applying the relevant tax law (including court decisions and other legal authorities) to the facts of the case. Most disputes can be settled informally at the Appeals level without litigation
As an administrative function of the IRS, Appeals can only consider your arguments if they are based on tax laws. Appeals cannot consider your arguments if they are based only on moral, religious, political, constitutional, conscientious, or similar objections to the assessment or payment of Federal taxes.
The IRS is legally required to assess proposed tax by a certain date in most cases. We refer to this date as the statute of limitations. Generally, before an examination case is received in Appeals, IRS policy for originating functions may require greater than 365 days remain on the statute of limitations. The IRS will ask you to agree to extend this date if additional time is needed to meet the required number of days. If you choose not to extend the date, Appeals will not accept your case. Note that docketed U.S. Tax Court cases do not have the statute of limitation concerns that non-docketed cases do
Next week: The Appeals Conference