Dear Colleagues:

The IRS chief counsel’s office is organizing virtual settlement days on September 3 and 4, 2020.  The purpose is to settle as many pro se taxpayer cases as possible ahead of the October 5 trial calendar.  There may be a need for additional attorneys to help out, but we are waiting for counsel’s office to let us know exactly how many. If you are interested, please review the court’s guidance regarding limited entries of appearance, and contact Sarah Lora at [email protected].

Sincerely,

OSB Tax Section, Pro Bono Committee

Dear Members of the OSB Taxation Section:

On behalf of the OSB Taxation Section Executive Committee (EC), we would like to extend our appreciation to those of you who have participated in our programs this year and we hope that you are excited for the 20^th Annual Oregon Tax Institute (live webcasts Tuesday, September 15 – Friday, September 18, 2020, registration is now open!: https://www.osbar.org/cle/2020/OTI20.pdf.  If you enjoy the programming and would like to get more involved…

We are seeking new EC members to serve two-year terms beginning January 1, 2021.

• Current EC Members: https://taxation.osbar.org/executive-committee/
• Section Website: https://taxation.osbar.org/

If you are interested in serving on the EC or you would like to nominate someone else to serve, please email anyone on the nominating committee and provide your resume (or a link to your bio/professional profile) and a brief statement expressing your interest by August 11.

Be safe and stay healthy,

Taxation Section Nominating Committee

               Heather A. Kmetz [email protected]

               Chris Heuer [email protected]

               Marc Sellers [email protected]

To all Oregon Tax Court stakeholders:

This message is to inform you that Chief Justice Walters has issued Chief Justice Order 20-027, extending statutory time periods and time requirements in certain Oregon Tax Court appeals.  The Tax Court has posted a copy of the order on its website here.  The order is authorized by Section 6 of House Bill 4212 (2020), which the Governor signed on June 30.  The order applies to the initiation of appeals to either division of the Tax Court and generally extends the appeal deadline to 60 days after the end of the COVID‑19 emergency period.  Note that the extension differs from the extension the legislature adopted for commencement of civil actions.  (Compare to Section 7 of HB 4212.)  In addition, the order authorizes the Tax Court Judge, or his delegate, to extend statutory deadlines that apply after the initiation of a proceeding.

Please direct any questions to Rocco Lieuallen at: [email protected]

Best wishes,

Rocco Lieuallen

Tax Court Administrator
Oregon Tax Court

Dear Members of the Oregon State Bar Taxation Section,

On Friday, June 5, Chief Justice Walters released a letter, signed by all members of the Oregon Supreme Court, addressing the death of George Floyd.  I wholeheartedly endorse the letter and have posted a copy to the Tax Court’s home page here:  https://www.courts.oregon.gov/courts/tax/Pages/default.aspx .  I share the Supreme Court’s commitment to act to bring about change that will root out bias in our legal system.  The commitment includes listening to concerns, so I invite those who would like to share concerns and ideas for improvement to contact us through our court administrator Rocco Lieuallen (503-986-7026).  We also plan to set aside some time at our annual stakeholder meeting (September 25) for this topic.  In the meantime, we will continue to work toward enhancing procedural fairness and access to the court.

Robert Manicke

Judge, Oregon Tax Court