William J. Wilkins, chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, will speak on Friday at 11 a.m. at UF Law at the Graduate Tax Program Enrichment Speaker Series. His lecture, “How IRS Lawyers Contribute to Sound Tax Enforcement,” reflects the knowledge he has gained from working in tax law since graduating from Yale University and receiving his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He will speak in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, HOL 180. Wilkins has a wide range of tax practice including counseling nonprofit organizations, investment funds on tax compliance, business transactions and government investigations. Wilkins became staff director and chief counsel of the Senate Committee on Finance in 1987. On April 17, 2009, the White House announced Wilkins’ nomination to become chief counsel for the Internal Revenue Service and an assistant general counsel in the Treasury Department.

Join UF Oct. 12 to honor black leadership and heritage

• Leadership and Law: Diverse Perspectives on the Role of Race and Participation in Professional Legal Organizations (CLE Credit Anticipated), 12-2:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 12, UF Law Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center. Welcome reception and luncheon noon-1 p.m.; panel presentation 1-2:30 p.m. with leaders from national, state, and local bar associations discussing how race has influenced the past, present, and future of their respective organizations in order to foster a dialogue on avenues for leadership and joint initiatives that transcend racial and other divides. Funded by The Florida Bar in cooperation with the Eighth Judicial Circuit Bar Association, the Josiah T. Walls Bar Association and Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations. RSVP here.
• A celebration honoring the 50th Anniversary of the Graduation of the University of Florida and Levin College of Law’s First Black alumnus: W. George Allen, featuring presentations by W. George Allen (above, right, at the 2011 opening of the Virgil Hawkins display) and other honored guests, 3 to 4:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 12, 2012, Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom (180 HOL). Co-sponsored by the University of Florida Alumni Association and Association of Black Alumni, Levin College of Law & Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations. Read more.

Harvard law professor discusses same-sex marriage at Weyrauch Lecture Oct. 18

The Weyrauch Distinguished Lecture in Family Law will feature Harvard Law School Professor Janet Halley on “Traveling Marriage: Why the Campaign for Same Sex Marriage Gets Marriage Wrong,” Thursday, Oct. 18, at noon in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, HOL 180.  Hosted by the Center for Children and Families, this lecture was established in honor of Professor Walter O. Weyrauch, internationally known for his work in foreign and family law.  Professor Weyrauch joined the UF Law faculty in 1957 as associate professor. He became professor in 1960, was Clarence J. TeSelle Professor 1989-94, and became Stephen C. O’Connell Chair in 1994 and distinguished professor in 1998. A reception will follow the lecture.

Halley is the Royall Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She teaches courses in family law, comparative family law and sexuality, and legal theory.  Before teaching at Harvard, she was professor of law at Stanford Law School (1991-2000) and assistant professor of English at Hamilton College (1980-85). She has a Ph.D. in English from UCLA (1980) and a J.D. from Yale Law School (1988).

Her books include After Sex? On Writing Since Queer Theory, co-edited with Andrew Parker (Duke University Press 2011); Split Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism (Princeton University Press 2006); Left Legalism/Left Critique, co-edited with Wendy Brown (Duke University Press, 2002); Don’t: A Reader’s Guide to the Military’s Anti-Gay Policy (Duke Univ. Press, 1999); and Seeking the Woman in Late Medieval and Renaissance Literature: Essays in Feminist Contextual Criticism, co-edited with Sheila Fisher (University of Tennessee Press, 1989). Her current projects include a handbook, What’s Not to Like about Sexual Harassment Law; a paper comparing family law systems entitled “Travelling Marriage;” and a critique of the rules about sexual violence in war established by the ad hoc courts convened to adjudicate war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

Criminal Justice Center, Criminal Law Association hosts criminal video-advocacy competition

The Criminal Justice Center and the Criminal Law Association is pleased to host its inaugural criminal video-advocacy competition this fall. The competition solicits submissions by student teams of an original, creative and educational video portrayal of Fourth Amendment issues geared toward a college-student audiences

• Cash prizes will be awarded for first through third places.
• All law students enrolled at the Levin College of Law are eligible to enter.
• Deadline for submissions is Oct. 22. Winners will be announced on Nov. 10.
• The submissions will be evaluated by members of a judging panel; criteria include clarity of thought, well-structured argumentation, creative use of videography and liveliness of expression.

Decisions of the judging panel will be final. Complete rules of the competition are available at the CJC website (www.law.ufl.edu/academics/centers/cjc) or can be obtained from Eva Achero in Room 100, Bruton-Geer Hall.

Black Student Association attends inaugural diversity picnic

The Black Student Association traveled to Orlando on Sept. 8 to attend the inaugural Central Florida Diversity Mentor Picnic hosted by FAMU College of Law. The diversity picnic allowed students the opportunity to meet lawyers and judges who practice in the central Florida community.

Singh (2L) wondered whether she should retrieve a box of Internal Revenue Service papers from her car after meeting with the federal tax collection agency for two hours earlier that day.

For many, the prospect of a two-hour meeting with the IRS might seem distressing. But for Singh, it’s business as usual.

Along with Joe Malca (2L), Singh co-directs the University of Florida College of Law’s chapter of the national organization Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA). It is designed to provide low-income people with free tax returns during tax season from Feb. 1 until April 7.

“I don’t think people realize the effect they’re having when they’re providing well over 600 Gainesville families with free tax returns,” Malca said.

And according to Malca’s own estimates, that number of 600 free returns and an estimated $5.7 million in tax refunds in 2010 is a low estimate. Those numbers could actually climb much higher as the organization continues to grow.

“It’s a good way to give back. We’re usually giving them good news,” Malca said of those whose taxes he prepares for free.

Singh, who graduated with her Master of Accounting from UF in 2009, said VITA is geared toward helping those with low to moderate incomes of up to $49,000 per person, but she said she doesn’t recall a time she or any of the other 100 student volunteers denied someone the free services VITA offers.

Both Singh and Malca stressed that the number of volunteers still has room to grow. Since they have been passing out fliers since October, the number of law-student volunteers has more than doubled from the previous year’s number of 48.

“There are a lot of people that run away when they see the word ‘tax,’ but we try and run after them,” Singh said.

Singh’s acknowledgment of the often-daunting language of taxation, however, was quickly followed with VITA’s baby-steps method of catering to those who know very little about taxes. She said only a few VITA volunteers are interested in tax law.

“You don’t need to know anything before you come in,” Malca said. “We’ll provide you with all the information you need.”

And the IRS is happy to help teach people, Malca said. Volunteers need only pass a basic and an intermediate open-book test to begin volunteering, both of which the IRS sends along with other materials to VITA chapters across the country. To further calm the fears of nervous first-time volunteers, Malca said every return is reviewed by a volunteer who has at least one year of experience with VITA.

“We’re trying to tell them it really is just asking questions,” Singh said. She noted the easy-to-use computer software that calculates each individual tax return. “It’s really not that difficult. People just get really intimidated when they see tax forms.”

For those who can’t overcome their fear of tax forms, Malca noted the importance of volunteering in a different capacity. VITA offers many different administrative tasks all of which count for community service hours toward the pro bono certificate upon graduation, including reading tax forms to international or elderly clients.

“The clients that come here have been coming for years,” Singh said, “and they’re all just so nice.”

Although Singh and Malca both stressed the importance of earning community service hours and gaining valuable experience in the useful field of taxation, the co-directors noted the most rewarding benefit of belonging to VITA is the relationships formed among law students and clients.

“We’re almost a family,” Singh said. “We all know each other. We have a real connection with the community.”

Singh recalled one female client in particular who, according to Singh, has been coming to the law school for a free tax return for the last five years and is now so familiar with the volunteers at VITA, she asks for people by name. It’s clear, as Malca nodded his head in agreement, VITA is not short on commitment.

Instead, the organization is struggling to pay its own bills. Fueled largely by generous donations from professors, the United Way and a few other sources, the organization has to conjure creative ways every night to feed its volunteers who work through dinnertime, they said.

“It’s a lot of pizza,” Malca said. “We’ve worked out a lot of deals with Domino’s.”

As Malca, Singh and the 100 or so other volunteers prepare for the next tax season in the coming days, both co-directors noted the passion for what they’re doing even amid their hectic final examinations.

“I always felt like this was more important than studying because I felt so good every time I left,” Malca said.

VITA prepares taxes every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening from 5-9 p.m. until April 7. Volunteers are asked to help four hours per week and to bring their laptops. Those who want to get more involved with VITA should contact Joe Malca or Sonia Singh at UFVITA@gmail.com.

Wilkins began his presentation with a description of the Office of Chief Counsel, which turns out to be a large department in what is a very large agency. According to Wilkins, the Office of Chief Counsel has 2,564 employees. While that may seem like a lot, it is fairly small when one considers the task that they must perform.

If taxes are inevitable, it is just as inevitable that people and companies will do their best to get around paying them. To enforce the tax code in courts across the country, the Office of Chief Counsel must employ hundreds of attorneys and their support staff. On top of all of this, the Office of Chief Counsel also serves as the chief legal advisor to the IRS commissioner, and also gives tax advice to the Treasury and taxpayers. Like any area of law, the envelope is always being pushed, and Wilkins and his staff must be watchful of trends and address them as needed.

The global movement of money and how it impacts taxes is an important issue that the IRS is currently dealing with. Wilkins said that the IRS is moving toward more international arrangements, and touched on the cooperation between Switzerland and the United States in uncovering the crimes of the Swiss bank UBS. In February 2009, UBS handed over the names of 250 Americans who had been evading taxes by stashing money in offshore UBS accounts. Since then, the IRS and the Swiss government have been working out a deal to deliver the names of thousands of other tax evaders. “And this kind of process will become more routine and more regularized,” Wilkins said.

Not every international case will be of this size, of course, but Wilkins said that these cases are usually not just your average audit. “The typical case is to develop evidence for an investigation, usually a criminal one,” he said.

But the IRS does more these days than simply enforcing tax regulations.

“We’re pretty long past the point where we’re only a tax collector,” Wilkins said.

With many government programs, like the first-time homebuyer credit, being implemented through the IRS, Wilkins described the office as also being a program administrator.

That role is already coming center-stage, as the implementation of the newly passed health care reform law begins. The law imposes new penalties for large employers who don’t provide insurance, grants new benefits to small businesses that do, and a multitude of other provisions. It also includes more traditional taxes, like the 10 percent tax on tanning beds. “That’s going to be an interesting one to apply,” Wilkins told the laughing crowd.