The IRS Appeals Division, which adjudicates administrative
appeals from examinations, began piloting a new, web-based virtual
conference option for taxpayers and their representatives on Aug.
1.
This virtual option is intended to provide face-to-face
interaction with an appeals officer. An appeal before the Appeals
Division may be conducted in person, over the phone, or virtually
through videoconference. Current videoconference capability is
limited at the IRS and is available at only certain IRS
offices.
In August of 2016, the IRS
updated its appeals procedures to encourage more telephone
conferences with taxpayers. Appeals officials indicated that
taxpayers often requested face-to-face hearings in order to
transfer their case from the IRS's campus function to the field
appeals function, which taxpayers believed to result in a more
favorable hearing given the field appeals function's tendency
to address more complex cases.
