A Message from the Chair of the NYU Tax Controversy Forum

BRYAN C. SKARLATOS is an Attorney at the law firm of Kostelanetz & Fink, LLP in New York, New York.
Message from the Chair of the NYU Tax Controversy Forum
By Bryan C. Skarlatos
The tax law is famously complex. When asked how many pages are in the current version of Treasury Regulations, a former senior IRS official once responded that it could not be determined because the tax law changed so frequently. One of the anomalies of our self-assessment system is that every citizen and resident is responsible for understanding and implementing this extremely complex law when they file their tax returns each year.
Under these circumstances, it is no surprise that most taxpayers turn to professional return preparers, accountants or tax lawyers to help them report and pay the correct amount of tax. But what is the correct amount of tax? As Judge Learned Hand famously noted, “there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes a low as possible ... for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands ... .”1 The complexity of the tax law combined with taxpayers’ legitimate desire to pay as little as legally possible puts a lot of pressure on the government to communicate the law clearly and on tax practitioners to understand what the law means.
That is why programs like the New York University Tax Controversy Forum are so important. They provide an opportunity for government representatives and private practitioners to come together in a neutral and objective environment to share perspectives and exchange ideas on how the tax law should be interpreted and applied. This year’s Forum was a prime example of that, bringing together 24 officials from the IRS and DOJ with 29 private tax practitioners to speak on 17 different panels and programs. With more than 225 people in the audience, this year’s Forum was another great success.
The Forum opened on Thursday evening with the usual special skills workshop. This year’s workshop was entitled, Taking Your Case to Tax Court: From Petition through Discovery to Trial. The Honorable Paige Marvel, Chief Judge of the United States Tax Court, together with Peter Scharff of the Office of Chief Counsel and Frank Agostino provided tips on the procedures and realities of taking a case to Tax Court. From techniques on how to structure a Petition, to what the stipula- tion of facts should look like, though how to conduct discovery, the audience learned what works and what does not in Tax Court cases.
AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2016
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