Graves Talks About IRS Chief Counsel Office
The Tax and Estate Planning Association hosted Charles Graves of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Chief Counsel's Office on Friday, September 23, 2005. A 1991 graduate of Washburn Law School, Mr. Graves has worked for fourteen years as a docket attorney representing the IRS, trying numerous cases before the Tax Court. Mr. Graves informed the students that the Chief Counsel's Office is a "division within the Department of Treasury" and the Chief Counsel is appointed by the President. The Chief Counsel's Office is not part of the IRS. He likes working for the office because he has the opportunity "to work in all areas: collections, tax court work determining deficiencies, advising the revenue agents, and lead counsel on agriculture tax" issues.
Mr. Graves described the structure of the Chief Counsel's office as having both field offices and the national office. Attorneys in the field offices are tax generalists who handle tax controvery and litigation matters. Attorneys in the national office primarily are specialists who work in one of several areas: corporate, financial institutions and products, income tax and accounting, international, national taxpayer advocacy, pass through and special industries, procedure and administration, and wage and investment. The national office therefore has specialists in specific sections of the Internal Revenue Code, some of whom specialize further in provisions of specific sections. Mr. Graves works as an attorney in the field office. He spends about ten percent of his time in court and fifty percent of his time preparing for court by drafting and filing motions, answers, doing discovery, and becoming familiar with the law.
Mr. Graves detailed the many procedural contexts that the Chief Counsel's Office oversees. Primarily, the office only addresses tax controversies, including penalties for late filings, underreporting, and collection issues. It also negotiates installment agreements for payments and frivolous W-4 cases where citizens challenge the constitutionality of the 16th Amendment. There are five ways to handle the controversies: administrative appeals, Federal Tax Court, District Court, Court of Claims, and the Bankruptcy Court. Mr. Graves informed the students that as many courts do, the "Tax Court has rules of evidence and also their own rules" so it is very important to be aware of the differences in the procedural and substantive law of the Tax Court. Attorneys in the Chief Counsel's Office become experts in procedural law.
Lastly, the students learned that the best way to obtain a job with the Chief Counsel's Office is to join the summer Honor's Program. General requirements for obtaining a position are graduating in the top ten to fifteen percent of the law school class, taking numerous tax courses and doing well in them, and providing a quality writing sample from either school or from legal employment. For students intersetsed in staying in the general area, Chief Counsel Offices in Denver, Chicago, and St. Louis are most likely to have positions open for employment. The normal starting salary for a docket attorney is $55,000 a year.
Contributed by DeLayne Kracht.
