- 14 -
independence of the appeals officers.
To fulfill that congressional mandate to ensure an
independent Appeals Office, respondent issued Rev. Proc. 2000-43,
2000-2 C.B. 404, which is effective for communications between
employees of the Appeals Office and other Internal Revenue
Service employees taking place after October 23, 2000. See
Harrell v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2003-271. Rev. Proc. 2000-
43, sec. 3, Q&A-1, 2000-2 C.B. at 405, provides the following
general description of the prohibition on ex parte
communications:
For the purposes of this revenue procedure, ex parte
communications are communications that take place
between Appeals and another Service function without
the participation of the taxpayer or the taxpayer’s
representative (taxpayer/representative). While the
legislation refers to “appeals officers,” the overall
intent of the ex parte provision is to ensure the
independence of the entire Appeals organization. Ex
parte communications between any Appeals employee,
e.g., Appeals Officers, Appeals Team Case Leaders,
Appeals Tax Computation Specialists, and employees of
other Internal Revenue Service offices are prohibited
to the extent that such communications appear to
compromise the independence of Appeals.
Rev. Proc. 2000-43, 2000-2 C.B. 404, provides that an
Appeals officer may not engage in ex parte discussions of the
strengths and weaknesses of the issues of a case that would
appear to compromise the Appeals officer’s independence and must
give the taxpayer an opportunity to participate in any
discussions concerning matters that are not ministerial,
administrative, or procedural in nature. Rev. Proc. 2000-43,
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011