10.07.2015 Views

Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT ...

Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT ...

Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

<strong>Government</strong>al Relati<strong>on</strong>ship <strong>and</strong> Communicati<strong>on</strong> Between the Internal Revenue Service <strong>and</strong> Indian Tribal <strong>Government</strong>sit would have been necessary to send it to all supervisors nati<strong>on</strong>wide. Thus, wereceived no feedback from any of the IRS pers<strong>on</strong>nel involved in BSA examinati<strong>on</strong>s orcollecti<strong>on</strong> activities with the Tribes.C. Other Informati<strong>on</strong> GatheredIn additi<strong>on</strong> to the surveys <strong>and</strong> attempted surveys described above, we gathered thefollowing additi<strong>on</strong>al Informati<strong>on</strong> for this report:• We developed a written survey for the Director of ITG <strong>on</strong> a variety oftopics, including (a) the assignment <strong>and</strong> reassignments of ITG specialiststo Tribes, (b) the specialists’ training <strong>and</strong> experience in communicati<strong>on</strong>swith Tribal leaders, (c) selecti<strong>on</strong> criteria for the specialists, <strong>and</strong> (d) theDirector’s own c<strong>on</strong>tacts with Tribes in the last year. The Director providedus with a written resp<strong>on</strong>se.• We asked the Director of ITG a number of follow up questi<strong>on</strong>s to thesurvey as well as questi<strong>on</strong>s throughout the year regarding a variety oftopics including hiring <strong>and</strong> retenti<strong>on</strong> issues, specialist job descripti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong>performance criteria, <strong>and</strong> budget c<strong>on</strong>straints, to which she resp<strong>on</strong>ded withhelpful informati<strong>on</strong>.• Finally, we relied <strong>on</strong> our own experiences with the IRS <strong>and</strong> other formal<strong>and</strong> informal feedback from our own c<strong>on</strong>tacts with Tribal <strong>Government</strong>s<strong>and</strong> their tax advisors.III.DISCUSSIONA. Development of ITGITG was established in late 1999 to help Indian tribes deal with their federal tax matters,as part of a broader reorganizati<strong>on</strong> of the IRS <strong>and</strong> creati<strong>on</strong> of the <strong>Tax</strong><strong>Exempt</strong>/<strong>Government</strong> <strong>Entities</strong> divisi<strong>on</strong> (“TE/GE”). During the planning <strong>and</strong> creati<strong>on</strong> ofthis office the IRS made a point of soliciting input from Tribal <strong>Government</strong>s <strong>and</strong> Tribalassociati<strong>on</strong>s, with a view to achieving a better underst<strong>and</strong>ing of the specialized needs ofTribal <strong>Government</strong>s. From the outset of the organizati<strong>on</strong> of ITG, the IRS hasrecognized that a str<strong>on</strong>g government-to-government relati<strong>on</strong>ship between the IRS <strong>and</strong>Tribal <strong>Government</strong>s is an essential building block for meeting federal tax administrati<strong>on</strong>goals. For example, the Internal Revenue Manual secti<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong> Indian Tribal<strong>Government</strong>s Administrati<strong>on</strong> provides:I.R.M. 4.86.1.1.The ITG office will be guided by principles of respect forIndian tribal self-government <strong>and</strong> sovereignty. ITG willdevelop a functi<strong>on</strong>al <strong>and</strong> interactive government-togovernmentrelati<strong>on</strong>ship between the IRS <strong>and</strong> Indian tribalgovernments.ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON TAX EXEMPT AND GOVERNMENT ENTITIES (<strong>ACT</strong>) June 11, 2008 5

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!