Coping with Section 6694 – Tax Preparer Penalties

Eve is a principal in the Practice, Procedure and Administration group in KPMG’s Washington National Tax practice. She is responsible for assisting clients in resolving complex practice and procedural issues, with a focus on tax opinions, tax penalties, and reportable transactions. She was instrumental in designing and implementing the firm’s electronic systems and policies for complying with federal and state registration and list maintenance laws concerning reportable transactions. 

Eve previously served as an attorney with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy. While at Treasury, Eve worked closely with key Treasury and IRS officials in drafting regulations and other guidance on taxpayer and preparer penalties, tax practitioner standards, relief from missed elections, and tax issues concerning insolvent financial institutions. She also worked with the Administration and Congress in formulating legislation on a wide range of tax compliance and taxpayer rights initiatives. At Treasury and as she transitioned back to the private sector, Eve also teamed with the US Agency for International Development and the Harvard Institute for International Development to assist the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance in drafting corporate and individual income tax laws as Lithuania emerged from Soviet rule into an independent republic. 

Before joining Treasury, Eve practiced tax law with the law firm of Chadbourne & Parke in New York City and Washington, DC, where she concentrated in the energy and leasing sectors. Previously, she practiced corporate and securities law with the law firm of Sage Gray Todd & Sims in New York City.

Mike Desmond concentrates his practice on federal tax controversies, administrative dispute resolution and tax policy counseling. He served as Tax Legislative Counsel in the U.S. Department of Treasury from 2005 to 2008. 

As Tax Legislative Counsel, Mike supervised a staff of lawyers and accountants that developed administrative guidance and provided the Assistant Secretary (Tax Policy) with legal advice and analysis on a broad range of issues relating to the domestic federal tax law. In particular, he played a primary role in the development of new ethics and practice rules governing tax preparers, including lawyers and accountants, with respect to their interaction with the federal tax system. He also served as a spokesperson for the Treasury Department before the Congressional tax-writing committees, testifying before Congress on a number of occasions on a wide range of federal tax issues. 

Mike was named one of the country's leading practitioners in the field of taxation by Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business 2009. A frequent speaker on tax policy and controversy matters, Mike has addressed audiences at conferences and seminars hosted by Tax Executives Institute (TEI), Practising Law Institute (PLI), Institutional Investor, The Tax Council and the American Bar Association (ABA). Mike is an active member of the ABA Section of Taxation, the Taxation Section of the D.C. Bar, the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association and the Taxation of Business Entities Committee of the City Bar of New York. He serves as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. 

Prior to joining the firm, Mike served as a trial attorney in the Attorney General’s Honors Program at the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he gained substantial experience litigating a wide variety of tax issues in the federal courts. From 1994 to 1995, he served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Ronald S.W. Lew in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. 

Mike received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law in 1994, where he was the managing editor of the Catholic University Law Review. He received a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1990.

Alvin S. Brown is the founder of www.section6694penalty.com and the IRS Forum a nonprofit educational organization www.irsforum.org. He is a Principal of the law firm of Alvin Brown and Associates, specializing in IRS controversies www.irstaxattorney.com. 

He had a 27 year career in the Office of the IRS Chief Counsel. 

Alvin has written two articles on section 6694 for the EA Journal March/April 2009 and November/December 2008, in addition to an article on 6694 for the Journal of Taxation and Regulations of Financial Institutions May/June 2008.

Kip Dellinger, Senior Tax Partner of Kallman And Co. LLP, provides services as an expert in the areas of CPA, and CPA firm, practice conduct and malpractice defense and represents clients in tax controversy matters and provides services to tax counsel in criminal and civil tax proceedings. 

Kip is current Chair of the AICPA Tax Division’s Tax Practice Responsibilities Committee and is the author of the volume - Federal Tax Practice Standards – for the CCH Tax Practice & Procedure Library (pub. January 2007). He developed and teaches a full day course on Tax Practice Standards, Conduct and Quality Control for California CPAs for the California CPA Society’s Education Foundation. He also developed and teaches FIN 48: Uncertain Tax Positions as full day course for the California CPA Society’s Education Foundation and spoke on that topic and also the tax return preparer standards at the 2008 AICPA NationalTax Conference, and the 2008 USC Law School Institute on Federal Taxation Kip also served on the AICPA Tax Division Tax Practice Quality Control Task Force, the Division’s Reportable and Listed Transactions Tax Force, and currently serves on the Division’s Penalty Reform Task Force and the SSTS Revisions Guidance and Interpretations Task Force. 

Kip has spoken on several occasions about tax practice ethics at the USC Law School Institute on Federal Taxation, the UCLA Tax Controversy Institute, the AICPA National Tax Conference, the Illinois Society of CPAs Annual Tax Conference, the Florida Institute of CPAs Tax Expo. He also addressed the California State Board of Accountancy’s 2006 CPA Ethics Conference, and for several year’s the California CPA Society’s Tax Update and Planning Conference, as well as the California Tax Bar’s 2005 and 2006 Annual Meetings, and was recently keynote speaker at the 2008 Los Angeles County Tax Bar Dana Latham Award Luncheon and the luncheon speaker at the 2008 Santa Clara University Law School’s Jerry A. Kasner Estate Planning Symposium.