The Internal Revenue Service is a massive "Three Letter Agency." It's a bureau of the Department of the Treasury and (believe it or not) one of the world's most efficient tax administrators. In fiscal year 2020, the IRS collected almost $3.5 trillion in revenue and processed more than 240 million tax returns. It has over 90,000 employees.
It is also about as popular as Communism and Dog Catchers with most people! This makes running this most public of organizations a challenge for garnering resources and maintaining safety, stability and confidence in the revenue collection that makes this country go.
Charles "Chuck" Rettig is a Shareholder at Chamberlain Hrdlicka in the Firm's Tax Controversy & Litigation practice and served as Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from 2018 through 2022. He shares his experience with us and some pointers in dealing with the Service.
How the IRS operates and its priorities:
The volume of work and responsibility of the Internal Revenue Service
The structure of the agency
Data Science is the Future
What it does that people may not be aware of
Other parts of the Treasury opine on tax policy, but the agency provides guidance on workability
Chuck as the Commissioner appeared before Congressional Committees 37 times in 4 years.
Personality matters both internally and externally
The Commissioner has an 11 person security detail and receives 3 credible death threats / week.
What to expect in the next years:
Legislative Uncertainty
Administrative Challenges
The Service has almost 400 Million "clients" with huge disparities in sophistication
Resources are always a struggle- getting bang for the buck
Personnel departures from the Service
Prediction: Increased aggressiveness at the state level
What best practices in front of the IRS look like.
Setting up your affairs with a ling term strategy in mind
Interacting with an Examiner
Speed and Humanity
The 3 headed approach to family office planning
High end advisory work with the T&E group
The overall context in working with the structure and culture of the IRS - having a backdoor channel
Litigation support for those situations that need it.
