Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
IRS News
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Jim Gadwood, Vice Chair of Miller & Chevalier’s Tax Department, May Be Next IRS Chief Counsel
Bloomberg Law, Tax Controversy Lawyer Is in Line for Top Counsel Job at IRS: Private-sector lawyer Jim Gadwood is being vetted to become IRS Chief Counsel, according to a person familiar with the process. If confirmed, he would be the fourth person in the role since President Donald Trump took office. … Gadwood, now vice…
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Trump Lets IRS Fire More Positions at Will
Bloomberg Law, IRS Can Fire More Positions at Will With Trump Executive Order: Trump’s order strips job security from almost 8,000 federal positions. Under Office of Personnel Management regulations, employees moved into a new job classification—known as Schedule Policy/Career—lose many of the procedural protections most federal workers have, including the right to appeal their removal to an independent…
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Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Tax Law
Bloomberg Law, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Tax Law: A 3-part series: Don’t Trust AI, Always Verify. Tax Law Still Needs Humans—Pt. 1: Generative artificial intelligence is now embedded in tax practice, and that trend is unlikely to reverse. What has changed is the risk profile. Large language models generate fluent legal analysis through…
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Judge Blocks IRS Deal Allowing Churches to Endorse Political Candidates; Treasury & IRS to Release New Guidance
Wall Street Journal, Judge Blocks Deal Allowing Churches to Endorse Political Candidates: A federal judge in Texas rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to allow religious leaders to endorse candidates from the pulpit. Judge J. Campbell Barker ruled Tuesday that he lacked the authority to consider an agreement that would have effectively created an exception to the so-called…
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Colleges (and Law Schools) Await Looming IRS Guidance on Race and Admissions
Bloomberg Tax, Colleges Await Looming IRS Guidance on Race and Admissions: Private colleges and universities with programs aimed to benefit racial minorities are girding themselves for new rules governing their tax-exempt status after a year of increased scrutiny by President Donald Trump. The administration, which plans to issue guidance in the next year, has cracked down on what it…
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ICE and the IRS: Inadvertent Disclosures Edition
In court filings on February 11, 2026, the IRS revealed additional details about its response to a June 2025 ICE request for 1.3 million taxpayers’ last known addresses—data that the Code expressly protects as part of “taxpayer identity.” Under the terms of an April 2025 information-sharing agreement, the IRS provided this information to ICE for…
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DOJ Tax’s Dissolution Forces a High-Stakes Reset for IRS and DOJ
Bloomberg Law, DOJ Tax’s Dissolution Forces a High-Stakes Reset for IRS and DOJ: With the Department of Justice’s Tax Division now formally dissolved, US tax enforcement is entering a new era. Given the Division’s central role in maintaining the delicate balance between voluntary compliance and effective enforcement—a balance that underpins the entire tax system—a post-mortem…
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Mazur: Modernizing the IRS in the Age of AI
Orly Mazur (SMU), Modernizing the IRS in the Age of AI, 45 Va. Tax Rev. 182 (2025): Artificial intelligence (AI) offers powerful tools for modernizing tax administration, from automating audits and improving fraud detection to enhancing taxpayer services. But if deployed prematurely, AI risks entrenching the very flaws it aims to fix. The Internal Revenue…
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Turmoil at Top of Trump’s IRS May Deter Future Tax Leadership
Turmoil at the top of Trump’s IRS may deter future tax leadership
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What’s Next After Justice Department Dissolved Its Tax Division?
What’s comes next after Department of Justice dissolved Its Tax Division?
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ICE and the IRS: Preliminary Injunction and Other Updates
On Friday, November 21, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a preliminary injunction barring the IRS from sharing certain taxpayer data with the Department of Homeland Security, stayed an April information-sharing agreement between the IRS and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and ordered the IRS to inform the District Court for D.C. before making further disclosures of taxpayer…
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Trump Pulls His Nomination of Donald Korb For IRS Chief Counsel
President Trump pulls his nomination of Donald Korb for IRS Chief Counsel after criticism from MAGA activist Laura Loomer
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IRS Watchdog Report: Staff Shortage to Hit Taxpayer Service
Tax Notes has a new article today (“IRS Staff Shortage to Hit Taxpayer Service, IT Work, Watchdog Says“), based on a new report from the Treasury Inspector General For Tax Administration. The full report is here, and here is the intro to the Tax Notes piece: Deep reductions in the IRS workforce will create challenges…
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Leff: The IRS Is Upholding A Core Liberal Principle In Permitting Churches To Endorse Political Candidates From The Pulpit
New York Times Op-Ed: The I.R.S. Is Trying to Uphold a Core Liberal Principle, by Benjamin M. Leff (American; Google Scholar): Last month the Internal Revenue Service did something remarkable: It proposed allowing houses of worship to engage in political speech and even endorse candidates without jeopardizing their ability to accept tax-deductible contributions. This proposal — which…
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WSJ: Lawyers Are On Edge Over Estate Tax Mistake That Can Cost A Family $6 Million
Wall Street Journal, The Estate Tax Mistake That Can Cost Families Millions: One family ended up with an extra tax bill of $1.5 million, and now estate lawyers are on edge. The U.S. tax code is generous when it comes to passing down money to heirs tax-free, and it has only become more so under…
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IRS Officials Trade On Confidential Tax-Related Information And Impact Tax Enforcement Outcomes
Cato Institute: IRS Officials’ Stock Holdings and Corporate Tax Outcomes, by Michael Mayberry (Florida; Google Scholar), Eashwar Nagaraj (Florida; Google Scholar) & Scott G. Rane (Florida; Google Scholar): The IRS plays an important role in improving corporate transparency and encouraging corporations to act in the best interests of their shareholders and other stakeholders. The agency makes…
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Obama-Era Tea Party Controversy Looms Over Investigation Of Current IRS Leaders Who Worked Under Lois Lerner
Following up on last week's post, IRS Heads Of Large Business And Professional Responsibility Units Placed On Leave Pending Investigation Of Their Conduct Against Republicans: Bloomberg Law, Decade-Old Tea Party Case Looms Over IRS Probe of Career Leaders: In the decade since the IRS’s tax-exempt division was found to have flagged conservative-leaning nonprofit applications, Republicans haven’t…
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NY Times: How Conservative Christians Cracked 70-Year-Old Law Prohibiting Endorsement Of Political Candidates From The Pulpit
Following up on my previous post, IRS Says Churches Can Endorse Political Candidates From The Pulpit: New York Times, How Conservative Christians Cracked a 70-Year-Old Law: The I.R.S. recently said that churches could endorse candidates from the pulpit, a shift from a longstanding interpretation of American nonprofit law. In the Blue Room of the White…
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IRS Heads Of Large Business And Professional Responsibility Units Placed On Leave Pending Investigation Of Their Conduct Against Republicans
Bloomberg Tax, IRS Heads of Large Business Unit, Tax Pro Oversight Put on Leave: Two highly placed IRS leaders were put on administrative leave Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the situation. Holly Paz, the commissioner of Large Business and International Division, and Elizabeth Kastenberg, acting director of the Office of Professional Responsibility, were…
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ProPublica: The IRS Is Building A Vast System To Share Taxpayer Data With ICE
ProPublica, The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE: The Internal Revenue Service is building a computer program that would give deportation officers unprecedented access to confidential tax data. ProPublica has obtained a blueprint of the system, which would create an “on demand” process allowing Immigration and Customs…
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NY Times: IRS Says Churches Can Endorse Political Candidates From The Pulpit
New York Times, I.R.S. Says Churches Can Endorse Candidates From the Pulpit: The I.R.S. said on Monday that churches and other houses of worship can endorse political candidates to their congregations, carving out an exemption in a decades-old ban on political activity by tax-exempt nonprofits. The agency made that statement in a court filing intended to settle…
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IRS To Lose 22% Of Taxpayer Service Workers After Trump Purge
Bloomberg, IRS to Lose 22% of Taxpayer Service Workers After Trump Purge: The IRS should quickly hire thousands of new taxpayer service employees so it’s prepared for next year’s filing season, given the agency is losing more than one-fifth of those workers under Trump administration-directed cuts, the National Taxpayer Advocate said in her mid-year report. The…
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IRS Releases 2024 Data Book
IR-2025-63, IRS Releases Fiscal Year 2024 Data Book Describing Agency’s Activities: The Internal Revenue Service today issued its annual Data Book detailing the agency's activities during fiscal year 2024 (Oct. 1, 2023 – Sept. 30, 2024). This year’s edition marks the publication’s 30-year anniversary; the first Data Book covered fiscal years 1993 and 1994 and…
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TIGTA: IRS Paid $21 Billion In Improper Tax Credits In 2024
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Assessment of Fiscal Year 2024 Compliance With Improper Payment Reporting Requirements (No. 2025-400-025) (May 9, 2025): For FY 2024, the IRS partially complied with the reporting requirements contained in the Payment Integrity Information Act (PIIA). As in prior years, the IRS calculated improper payment rates for the following four…
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Trump Nominates Donald Korb To Serve A Second Stint As IRS Chief Counsel
Bloomberg, Bush-Era Lawyer Picked by Trump to Serve as Top IRS Attorney: President Donald Trump nominated former IRS chief counsel Donald Korb [Sullivan & Cromwell] to be the top lawyer again at the tax agency. Korb would take over the spot after Marjorie Rollinson resigned at the end of the Biden administration, and join the…