This "Collection Due Process Hearing" is a specific encounter with the IRS that follows their threat to grab our property. It is mandated by IRC Section 6330, and they hate it - because it gives us an unprecedented opportunity to force them to go on the record with their multiple violations of law. So it's worth preparing well; see also the ISMIS pages
A CDPH is valuable because the IRS don't have the option of refusing our demand to have one; Section 6330 mandates it before any collection (levy) action can continue. It also specifies several prerequisite actions that the IRS must take - for example, that the agent arranging the Hearing SHALL present a certificate from the Secretary (of the Treasury) that "all requirements of the Law have been met" in each particular case. Zedheads have now held many CDPHs, and we have yet to hear of one in which the Hearing Officer produced such a certificate; not even one signed by some delegate of the Secretary! Reason: it is impossible for the IRS to comply with the "requirements of the Law" when attempting to extort income tax!
So we take along a Court Reporter and start by asking for that certificate, and note for the formal record his total failure to produce one. If he subsequently rules against us (and he will) we have irrefutable evidence to bring to Court that the Hearing was not conducted according to the mandate of Section 6330, and so that we have been denied Due Process, and so that further collection action is forbidden.
At this writing that Court is the Tax Court - though some debate is opening that a Federal District Court may be more suitable.
The Basic Tool Set is needed for a proper understanding of this as of all questions indexed here. In particular its Internal Revenue Code is indispensible for meeting preparation and conduct.
Audiotape Series 6 Tapes 2 and 4 review the vastly important, new Code Sections 6320 and 6330, and detail how to take full advantage of this windfall from the 1999 Senate hearings on the IRS. Tape 3 is "vintage Schiff"; using a transcript provided by "Fred", a Mid-Atlantic Zedhead, Mr Schiff identifies common mistakes we make when meeting IRS people and emphasizes over and over the great value of those two new Code sections and how to maximize our advantage in making use of them.
Tape 6 of Series 6 introduces the enormous advantage we can derive from the "discovery" process preceding a Tax Court or District Court appeal - in which the government can be forced, by the rules of procedure, to give answers to a range of questions that are, from their viewpoint, unanswerable. The same tape also introduces the Tax Court Toolkit, which will include a series of sample questions, admissions and interrogatories and comments how much better postition we are in that was the case in the 1980s - through the CDPH process, mandated by Section 6330 we can now make the IRS answer for its misdeeds in court and against its will, all before any siezure is permitted.
The Back Yard Role Play Audiotape is Mr Schiff's latest production and a fine, informal way to practice preparing for any Collection Due Process Hearing. Thanks to the 1999 IRS Reform & Restructuring Act, we now have solid legal obligations laid on the IRS to hold these Hearings and produce at them certain materials - which they never, ever can. It's a turkey-shoot, and this tape makes sure we have ample ammunition.
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