Texas A&M University School of Law's senior lecturer and director of the Low Income Tax Clinic, Bob Probasco, is the principal drafter for comments submitted to the U.S. Tax Court by the Tax Section of the State Bar of Texas. He and current law clinic students are advocating for change to the Tax Court’s Rules of Practice and Procedure to provide for entries of limited appearance by pro bono volunteers.
Probasco says this change would allow clinics to provide even more help to taxpayers.
The ABA (American Bar Association) Section of Taxation: Pro Bono and Tax Clinics Committee submitted similar comments in October. The State Bar Tax Section agrees with the Texas A&M Law clinic’s goal but wrote separately to suggest an alternative process. Probasco says the Tax Court has already begun looking at the issue and hopefully will benefit from the law clinic’s input.
In addition to helping the community by representing low income taxpayers who have disputes with the IRS, Probasco is an active member of the tax practitioner community. He serves in the leadership of the State Bar Tax Section, is a frequent “guest blogger” on the Procedurally Taxing blog run by Villanova and Harvard, and he presents at various conferences.
In November, he served as chairman of the planning committee for the 66th Annual Taxation Conference and helped organize the event held in Austin.
This month, Probasco was a panelist for the presentation on “Demystifying IRS Transcripts” at a national conference in Washington, D.C. The conference was organized by the Taxpayer Advocate Service of the IRS for all low-income, taxpayer clinics (LITC) that receive funding from the IRS.
Check out Probasco's recent blog posts:
► Learn more about Bob Probasco.
► Learn more about the Texas A&M Low Income Tax Clinic.
► Learn more about Texas A&M Legal Clinics.
- Article by Tyra Kelly, Texas A&M University School of Law Marketing and Communications