WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announced the appointment of 12 new members to the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council.
The IRSAC, established in 1953, is an organized public forum for IRS officials and representatives of the public to discuss a broad range of issues in tax administration. The Council provides the IRS and agency leaders with relevant feedback, observations and recommendations. It will submit its annual report to the agency at a public meeting in November 2024.
The IRS strives to appoint members to the IRSAC who represent the taxpaying public, the tax professional community, small and large businesses, tax exempt and government entities and information reporting interests.
The following individuals were appointed to serve three-year terms on the council beginning this month:
Robert Barr – vice president of business engineering, CGI Federal, Dallas, Texas. Barr has led digital transformations for both public and private sector organizations, including the South Carolina Department of Revenue, Intuit, Dell, Blockbuster and USAA. He also served as the Internal Revenue Service Assistant Commissioner for Electronic Tax Administration where he branded IRS e-file and the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), established the National Accounts Program, enabled credit card payment of taxes and digital signing and other initiatives. Barr formerly served on the Commissioner’s Advisory Group, the Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee and the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee.
Andrew Bloom – head of tax strategy, Golub Capital, based in Northern Virginia. Bloom advises on tax issues for investors, general partners, large partnerships, foreign corporations and business development companies as a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registered investment advisor and international asset manager. He also manages substantive tax issues, including investment fund structuring, financial product planning, international tax planning, Fixed, Determinable, Annual, Periodical (FDAP) and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) withholding and tax treaty planning and compliance. Previously, he was a partner at Dechert LLP in New York.
Elizabeth Boonin – Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and managing member, Sound Accounting, East Setauket, New York. Boonin is the founder of a full-service public accounting firm offering individual and business tax services, representation in IRS matters and business valuations for mergers and acquisitions. Previously, she served for eight years as the vice president (VP) of Global Markets Financing & Services with Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.
Beatriz Castaneda – director of tax information reporting, Coinbase Inc., based in Parker, Colorado. Castaneda focuses on tax information reporting for traditional services and digital assets, advising on tax rules and assesses potential risks. Her team develops information reporting policies for Coinbase and its affiliates. She drafts guidance and protocols for internal use as well as customer communications related to tax reporting obligations. Previously, Castaneda served on the IRS Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee.
Steven Grieb – senior compliance counsel, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Grieb has 25 plus years of experience working directly with companies that sponsor qualified and non-qualified retirement plans. His work deals significantly with Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and fiduciary duties, as well as with helping plan sponsors and service providers understand and comply with the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) requirements including from the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE) and SECURE 2.0.
Lawrence Sannicandro – partner, McCarter & English LLP, Newark, New Jersey. Sannicandro has significant experience representing small businesses and self-employed taxpayers in audits, administrative appeals, investigations, collection matters and litigation in federal trial and appellate courts. He is a principal draftsperson of written comments from the American Bar Association (ABA) Tax Section to the IRS on issues, including changes to Schedule UTP, Uncertain Tax Position Statement. He has been nationally recognized for co-founding the Exonerees’ Tax Assistance Network, which provides tax-related assistance to wrongfully incarcerated individuals.
Peter Smith – senior manager, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Smith is a tax specialist with over 17 years of financial services industry experience in both public accounting and in-house tax practices focusing on tax compliance and the application of U.S. and international tax law for portfolio managers, investment funds and investors. He has expertise on tax issues that impact the investment fund community and has worked extensively in both the research and compliance of tax law for U.S. and non-U.S. regulated and non-regulated funds, securities and investors.
Cory Steinmetz – IRS compliance officer and principal assistant attorney general, Office of the Ohio Attorney General, Columbus, Ohio. Steinmetz has worked in government taxation for the last nine years and is the Office of the Ohio Attorney General’s main contact with the IRS. Prior to 2020 he was an attorney with the Ohio Department of Taxation. He manages IRS compliance for the office and litigates tax issues in state and bankruptcy courts across the country, representing governmental creditors in consumer and corporate bankruptcy cases.
Hussein Tarraf – president, Tarraf & Associates, PC, Dearborn, Michigan. Tarraf has been in public accounting for over 20 years providing tax advisory and assurance services primarily to small to medium size businesses and high net-worth individuals, and has worked in the areas of accounting, audit, consultation, business planning and taxation within several firms. Tarraf, a CPA and Certified Fraud Examiner, is an Associate Professor of Accounting and the Director of Accounting and Finance Program at Madonna University.
Lucinda Weigel – CPA, Enrolled Agent (EA) and owner, Weigel Tax & Accounting Services LLC, Vienna, Virginia. Weigel owns and manages a small tax accounting firm specializing in helping older and disabled clients manage their tax matters and financial affairs. She also represents clients before the IRS and state tax authorities to help resolve issues. She recently served on the IRS Taxpayer Advocacy Panel where she chaired its Tax Forms and Publications Committee.
Thomas Wheadon – head of international tax and transfer pricing, MAHLE Industries, Incorporated, Farmington Hills, Michigan. In this role at a German-owned manufacturing company, he is responsible for international tax calculations, modeling and reporting related to Base Erosion and Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) and Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) as well as managing transfer pricing in accordance with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) guidelines. Previously, he worked in a large public accounting firm as an international tax manager.
Nicholas Yannaci – director in group tax, UBS, Stamford, Connecticut. Yannaci is responsible for IRS correspondence related to audits, abatement requests, liens and notices of default. He reviews prospectuses to ensure accurate disclosures and works closely with operations to ensure accurate reporting. He is a member of the qualified intermediary (QI) periodic review team as the liaison between the external reviewer and UBS.
The 2024 IRSAC Chair is Annette Nellen, professor of accounting and taxation and Master of Science in Taxation program director at San Jose State University in San Jose, California. Nellen is a CPA and attorney and is active in the tax sections of the AICPA (including former chair of the Tax Executive Committee), ABA (vice chair of the Tax Policy & Simplification Committee), and California Lawyers Association (member of the Tax Executive Committee). She is the recipient of the 2013 Arthur J. Dixon Memorial Award given by the Tax Division of the AICPA, the highest award given by the accounting profession in the area of taxation. Nellen has written numerous tax articles and is a co-author/co-editor of four tax textbooks. She is a frequent speaker at conferences and education programs for tax professionals focusing on tax developments, property transactions, digital assets, tax research, ethics, tax reform and tax policy, and has testified several times before various legislative committees and tax reform commissions on tax policy and reform. Prior to joining San Jose State University in 1990, she worked at the IRS (revenue agent and lead instructor) and a Big 4 CPA firm.
For more information, visit Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council
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