The Internal Revenue Service is reversing a May 2017 reorganization that paired the office of Tax Exempt Bonds with Indian Tribal Government.
Starting Nov. 23, there will once again be a separate Office of Tax Exempt Bonds with longtime IRS employee Allyson Belsome as its senior manager.
Belsome, who is based in the suburbs of Chicago, has most recently served as senior manager of ITG/TEB Technical that has generated computer-driven guidance for field examinations for the past 2-½ years.
Belsome also has overseen the Voluntary Closing Agreement Program, compliance reviews, technical assistance to agents, direct pay bonds and an internal computer system known as K-Net.
The move is not expected to change the annual number of audit examinations of tax exempt bonds to IRS conducts, according to Telly Meier, field operations manager for the IRS Indian Tribal Governments/Tax Exempt Bonds section.
The IRS planned to close 500 audits in its Tax Exempt Bonds office 2019 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up slightly from 480 in the 2018 fiscal year.
The 2020 IRS compliance strategy announced Oct. 16 will focus on jail bonds with respect to whether federal government use and management contracts cause excessive private business use; whether sinking fund over-funding causes the tax credit bonds to be arbitrage bonds; and whether variable rate bonds comply with the rebate and yield restriction rules under Internal Revenue Code Section 148.
According to the IRS, most of the organizational changes within its Tax Exempt Government Entity division is within the tax exempt area.
Margaret Von Lienan, the director for Exempt Organizations, will have the new title of director for Exempt Organizations and Government Entities.
Reporting to Von Lienan will be Steve Martin, director of Exempt Organizations; Maria Hooke, director for Exempt Organizations Examinations; and Angela Gartland, acting director for Government Entities.
Gartland will oversee four senior managers: Belsome in Tax Exempt Bonds; Telly Meier in Indian Tribal Governments; David Weaver in Federal, State and Local Employment Tax and Sherry Whitaker in Compliance.
Christie J. Jacobs had headed the consolidated offices of Tax Exempt Bonds and Indian Tribal Government.
