IR-2014-8: IRS Announces New Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council Members

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Issue Number:    IR-2014-8

Inside This Issue

IRS Announces New Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council Members

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced the selection of six new members to the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council (IRSAC), which provides an organized public forum for IRS officials and representatives of the public to discuss key tax administration issues.

Members are selected to represent the taxpaying public, tax professionals, small and large businesses, academia and the payroll community. The council provides the IRS commissioner and division leadership with important feedback, observations and suggestions.

“We are fortunate to have these new members of IRSAC,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “The members bring a wealth of insight and experience that we appreciate as we seek to effectively administer the tax law.”

IRSAC meets periodically and will submit a report to the agency in November 2014 at a public meeting. IRSAC members generally serve a three-year term with a possible one-year extension. The six new members will join 14 returning members in 2014.

The new members are:

• Timothy J. McCormally, JD, is the Director in the Washington National Tax practice of KPMG, LLP, in Washington, D.C. He has nearly 40 years’ experience as a tax attorney. Before joining KPMG, he spent 30 years on the staff of Tax Executives Institute (TEI), first as General Counsel and then as Executive Director. At TEI, his responsibilities included the overall administration of the professional association of 7,000 in-house tax professionals from around the world. He also participated in the Institute’s extensive advocacy program, contributing to comments submitted to the IRS, Treasury Department, Canada Revenue Agency, Canadian Department of Finance and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. McCormally is a contributor to numerous publications and recently co-wrote an article with Michael Dolan, a former IRS Deputy Commissioner, entitled “Knowing Which Way the Wind Blows: Best Practices for Mitigating the Risk of Tax Whistleblowing.” 
• Cheri Freeh, CPA, CGMA, is the principal owner of Hutchinson, Gillahan & Freeh, PC, in Quakertown, Pa. She has over 30 years’ experience in the field of accounting for privately held businesses, non-profit organizations, local governments, estates, trusts and individuals. Her firm specializes in small businesses (most gross receipts under $1 million), mostly middle-class individuals, small estates and trusts, non-profits and overall the CPA practitioner community. She is the immediate Past President of the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs (PICPA) and currently serves on the governing council of the AICPA. She is also a member of the Pennsylvania State Department of Community and Economic Development’s Act 32 advisory committee that deals with local earned income tax. 
• Helen Karakash, CPP, has more than 20 years’ experience in taxation and is the Payroll Director for Republic Services in Phoenix, Ariz. She currently serves as the Director of a large employer with 30,000 employees and a yearly revenue exceeding $8 billion dollars. As the Payroll Director, she directs tax deposits and filings in 40 states and provides payroll expertise for writing and implementing company policies. She previously worked as a Payroll Manager for Allied Waste Industries, Energetic Solutions, and Human Resources Corporations (HRC), where she managed a staff of 10 for payroll processing for more than 200 small businesses. She is a member of the American Payroll Association (APA) and serves on the APA CPP Certification Committee. She previously served as President, Vice President and Education Coordinator of the APA.
• Robert Bader, JD, EA, is the Director of Tax Operations for the Baltimore CASH Campaign in Baltimore, Md. Bader was introduced to free tax preparation services while managing a partner program of the Baltimore CASH Campaign. In 2008, he became Director of its tax programs and now coordinates organizations throughout the Baltimore area that prepare returns for 8,000 to10,000 low-income working families. Bader is an active member of the National Community Tax Coalition (NCTC), an organization that represents Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs and Low Income Tax Clinics (LITCs). Bader is the Vice Chair of the Maryland Board of Individual Tax Preparers and a member of the Maryland Society of Accounting and Tax Professionals. He is a member of the Maryland bar and previously represented low-income individuals as a legal aid attorney in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. He served in the United States Peace Corps in the countries of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.
• Jennifer MacMillan, EA, is the owner of Jennifer MacMillan, EA, in Santa Barbara, Calif. MacMillan has more than 25 years’ experience in taxation. She specializes in representation services, which includes audit, collections, appeals, compliance issues and individual income tax preparation and planning, and is licensed to represent taxpayers before the IRS. She has been an instructor at the National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) National Tax Practice Institute for many years (teaching advanced representation skills to EAs, CPAs, and attorneys). In addition, she teaches two-hour Ethics courses for many of the California Society of Enrolled Agents (CSEAs) local chapters, giving hundreds of Enrolled Agents in-depth interpretations of Circular 230 and real-world applications that relate to the daily challenges that arise in their practices. MacMillan has written numerous articles, such as “Avoiding the Perils of Fee Predicaments.” She is a member of the National Association of Enrolled Agents and the Chair of the California Society of Enrolled Agents, Government Relations Committee. 
• Ronald Aucutt, JD, has over 38 years’ experience in taxation and is a partner with McGuireWoods, LLP, in Tysons Corner, Va.  Aucutt’s specialties include corporate reorganizations, the investment tax credit, tax-exempt financing, TEFRA partnership audits and tax treatment on inventories, as well as tax-exempt organizations, estate and gift taxes and the income taxation of estates and trusts, which in time became his areas of concentration. Prior to joining McGuireWoods, LLP, he was an associate with Miller & Chevalier, where he handled tax planning matters and tax audits and appeals throughout the country. He compiled the factual background and analysis that was adopted by the Senate Finance Committee in changing the effective date of the first generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax in the Tax Reform Act of 1976 to June 12, 1976. Aucutt is a member of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) and the Chair of its Washington Affairs Committee (2009-2013). He is also a member of the American Bar Association, Section of Taxation.

The 2014 IRSAC Chairman is Paul O’Connor, LLM, JD, CPA. He is Vice President, Head of U.S. Tax for EMD Millipore Corp. in Billerica, Mass. O’Connor has 32 years’ experience in taxation in the technology, software and bioscience fields. For more than two decades, he has been chief tax officer for Millipore Corporation (now EMD Millipore, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), a company engaged in bioscience research, chemical and pharmaceutical production. He is a member of Tax Executives Institute and served as the International President from 2010-2011.

For more information on IRSAC, please visit the Tax Professionals page on IRS.gov.

Related Item:

• IRSAC Members Deliver 2013 Public Report

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