I had the pleasure of meeting Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, last night at a Taxpayer Advocate Town Hall meeting. I was very impressed with her. She took questions from the audience for about 2 hours dealing with issues of the disabled, low-income, retired, farmers and non-profits. She was even calm and reasonable when confronted by a couple of tax protesters.
One was waving his “autographed” copy of Joe Banister’s report claiming it exposed IRS tinkering with taxpayers master files. She advised him that while Joe’s two years of study of the tax code on his “own time” was admirable she became a practicing tax attorney in 1975 and doubted that Joe could find any practicing attorney or judge to agree with his conclusions.
If you get the chance to attend one of these meetings I would highly recommend it. I had the chance to speak with Nina for a few minutes before and after. She seemed pleased that a couple of tax professionals would take the night off to hear her speak.
One was waving his “autographed” copy of Joe Banister’s report claiming it exposed IRS tinkering with taxpayers master files. She advised him that while Joe’s two years of study of the tax code on his “own time” was admirable she became a practicing tax attorney in 1975 and doubted that Joe could find any practicing attorney or judge to agree with his conclusions.
If you get the chance to attend one of these meetings I would highly recommend it. I had the chance to speak with Nina for a few minutes before and after. She seemed pleased that a couple of tax professionals would take the night off to hear her speak.