Duke Law’s Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) offers students an opportunity to provide an important service to residents of North Carolina while gaining valuable skills they can take with them into practice.
The Process
Students enrolled in the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic work to assist low-income taxpayers in North Carolina with tax matters pending before the IRS. Once a prospective client has contacted the Clinic about a specific case, it is assigned to a student who then interviews the client to understand the basic issues involved. As part of this initial interview, the student may have the opportunity to explain a notice received from the IRS by the client or what the IRS expects the client to do in response to that notice.
A second client interview is typically conducted in order to develop the facts involved in the case, understand how the applicable law impacts the case, and counsel clients as to their options. Once a course of action has been agreed upon, the student, working with the clinic director, will proceed to handle the case.
Casework
A significant part of the clinic’s work is dedicated to collection cases where the IRS has alleged that a client has failed to pay his/her income tax. In such instances, students first determine if the client owes the tax. If the client does, in fact, have an outstanding tax debt, students then determine how to best assist the client in resolving the matter. This may involve preparing an “offer-in-compromise” for the client, negotiating an affordable payment plan, or requesting that the IRS place the account in “currently not collectible” status.
Students may also handle matters involving earned income credit, claims of innocent spouse relief, hazards of litigation, and “controversy work.”
All LITC students are required to have successfully completed the Law School’s Federal Income Taxation course, devote 100 hours to client work, and attend 28 hours of lectures on issues ranging from IRS tax practice and procedures to substantive questions in tax law, including matters such as:
- Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
- Innocent spouse relief
- Offers-in-Compromise (OIC)
- Identity theft
- Forgiveness of indebtedness
- Abatement of penalties based on reasonable cause
- Timeliness of assessment
Through the LITC, students develop communication, negotiating, and trial skills; sharpen their interviewing technique; and are exposed to administrative law, administrative advocacy, and substantive tax law.