TS provides technical and procedural support and guidance for Field Examination and Area Management in both SB/SE and LB&I by reviewing a wide range of casework. This includes issuing Statutory Notice of Deficiencies (SNOD) and Final Notices, assessing criminal restitution based-assessment, and suspending Fraud/Grand jury and bankruptcy cases. Performing various other technical and procedural case reviews to improve quality of examination. The mission of TS is to provide top quality customer service.

Technical Services supports Examination's objective to conduct timely and quality examinations of each selected tax return to determine the correct tax liability by doing the following:

Technical Services provides various support to Exam employees; so, they may meet their mission to conduct timely and quality examinations while applying the tax law with integrity and fairness.

Technical Services supports SB/SE and LB&I managers and examiners by providing current technical and procedural guidance through presentations, job aids and contributions to publications (including the Technical Digest). The Technical Digest is a quarterly newsletter published by SB/SE Examination Quality and Technical Support in cooperation with Collection Civil Enforcement Advice and Support Operations. Issues of the Technical digest are found in the Technical Digest Knowledge Base.

The job aids and publications are accessible on the Examination Technical Newsletter section website.

Group managers and examiners may informally request information and guidance through the Field Examination Technical Services program coordinators. Areas of technical and procedural assistance include the following:

A listing of programs and a directory of coordinators and other case related guidance links for Technical Services employees only may be found on the SB/SE Exam Technical Services SharePoint Home page under the Subject Matter Experts (SME) site. Employees in Field groups can access a listing of TS programs and coordinators by accessing the Examination Technical Services, MySB/SE website.

See IRM 1.1.16.3.1.2.1, Technical Services Territories.

See IRM 1.2.1.2.2, Policy Statement 1-2, Principles of Quality.

See IRM 1.2.1.2.36, Policy Statement 1-236 (Rev. 1), Fairness and Integrity in enforcement Selection.

See IRM 1.2.1.5.19, Policy Statement 4-63, No unwarranted adjustments in statutory notices.

In July 2018, the four Technical Services were aligned under four Field Examination Area Directors. The SB/SE Examination Deputy Operations, Field Examination is the Executive responsible for providing policy and guidance to area directors with Technical Services employees.

The area directors with oversight of Technical Services have executive responsibility for controlling inventory and case processing within their respective TS territories.

Technical Services is composed of the four following territories:

Each TS territory is led by a TS territory manager who reports directly to their respective area director. The Area Technical Services website provides the name of the four TS territory managers and their respective TS group manager’s post of duty.

Groups are composed of a manager, revenue agent reviewers, tax compliance officer reviewers, tax examiners, and supporting clerical staff.

Work may be "brokered" from one Technical Services group/territory to other Technical Services groups/territories to more effectively balance workload and existing resources.

At the discretion of the four Technical Services area directors, a specific Technical Services territory or group may perform functions for a specified program or project for all Technical Services or for all groups in a territory to improve efficiency and consistency. The TS territory managers and their respective area directors work together to centralize certain programs under one TS territory with the approval of the Director, Field Examination.

The South Atlantic - Technical Services Legacy territory has specialty groups that work the following programs: Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, TEFRA, Bankruptcy, Criminal Restitution, Employee Audits and International cases. This specialized focus allows Technical Services to better serve the internal and external customers.

Periodic program reviews are conducted by the Technical Services managers according to the TS Managerial Review Requirements.

The TS territory managers and area director’s analysts conduct annual operational reviews of the TS territories to:

The following table lists the acronyms and definition used throughout this IRM section:

The following table list related resources that are referred throughout this IRM.

Section 1101 of Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA) as amended by the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (PATH Act) and sections 201 of the Tax Technical Corrections Act of 2018 (TTCA) repealed the TEFRA partnership procedures and the electing large partnership provisions and replaced them with a new centralized partnership audit regime.

The TSPC is comprised of two separate review groups. These groups are responsible for 100 percent review of all BBA examinations conducted in SB/SE and LB&I.

The reviewer groups are comprised of revenue agent reviewers/pass-through coordinators who possess a broad range of technical knowledge of BBA statutory law and administrative procedures.

The reviewer/TSPC responsibilities include, but not limited to the following:

The revenue agent / group manager assume responsibility, with TSPC’s assistance, when the imminent procedures are not followed.

BBA guidance is based on new legislation. The process and procedures are in the new IRM 4.31.9, Pass-Through Entity Handbook, Centralized Partnership Audit Regime (BBA) Field Examination Procedures.

The Technical Services TEFRA function is comprised of two separate review groups. These groups are responsible for 100 percent review of all TEFRA examinations conducted in SB/SE and LB&I.

The reviewer groups are comprised of revenue agent reviewers/Technical Services Pass-Through Coordinators (TSPC) coordinators who must possess a broad range of technical knowledge of TEFRA statutory law and administrative procedures.

The reviewer/TSPC responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

The revenue agent / group manager assume responsibility, with TSPC’s assistance, when the imminent procedures are not followed and / or when the case is not linked on PCS as required.

See IRM 4.31.2, TEFRA Examinations - Field Office Procedures for a full explanation of the reviewer / TSPC duties and responsibilities.

Refer to IRM 1.4.40, Resource Guide for Managers - SB/SE Compliance Field Examination Group Manager, for additional guidance.

Case reviews are conducted to evaluate case quality and examination processing requirements. Some areas utilize reviewers to conduct reviews of both in-process and closed cases. Case reviews include the following:

Reviewers are expected to effectively communicate with other technical personnel, management, taxpayers, and external customers when providing or obtaining information to timely resolve issues in the completion of their assignments.

The standard position descriptions and associated reviewer critical elements include complete descriptions of expectations for reviewers.

Generally, the revenue agent, and tax compliance officer positions are rotational assignments for reviewers who enter Technical Services after the June 13, 2005 effective date of the SB/SE Rotational Positions Agreement Letter of Understanding (LOU). The initial rotational assignment is between 24-36 months and may be extended up to a year beyond this period. Any extensions of the rotational assignment beyond the additional year will require the mutual consent of management and the employee.

CASE REVIEW (641) - Time spent reviewing certain examination cases. This includes reviews of EQMS sample cases, mandatory case reviews, and completion of post-examination procedures. In general, time expenditures associated with a specific examination case closed from a Field group are charged to this code. The only exceptions are cases for which other codes are identified. Do not charge time to Activity Code 641 without a TIN.

SUSPENSE CASES: CASE REVIEW VS. COORDINATOR DUTIES (641) - If a reviewer is working on a specific case in suspense, then time should be charged to that TIN and Activity Code 641. If a reviewer is working on suspense procedures affecting many different cases and the time is not material enough to charge to any specific case, then time should be charged to Activity Code 587 and the appropriate review type (e.g., Review Type 45 or Review Type 46 for Fraud Suspense Cases).

SUSPENSE PROGRAM REVIEWERS - Should complete Form 9984, Examining Officer's Activity Record, or equivalent, and document time and actions performed that are being charged to Activity Code 641 and / or Activity Code 587. The activity record should be documented for all activity and included in the case file. The record could be useful when the cases are reassigned to another reviewer.

If a TSPC is working with a Field group processing a case in Status Code 12, that time should be charged by the TSPC to that TIN and Activity Code 641.

NOTICE OF DEFICIENCY 90 DAY (643) — Time spent preparing, reviewing, and signing notices of deficiency. This code also includes charges for the preliminary review of the case file, coordination with area counsel, and response to taxpayer inquiries. Do not charge time to Activity Code 643 without a TIN.

Activity Code 643 is also used by TSPCs for the preparation of the Final Partnership Administrative Adjustment (FPAA) with the time charged to the respective TIN.

COORDINATOR ACTIVITY (587) — Use Activity Code 587 with a review type as a second segment code to break down coordinator activity between the different programs worked, other than TEFRA coordination or specific programs identified in IRM 4.8.1.6.9 below. See IRM Exhibit 4.8.2-1, Technical Services, Case Processing. Coordinator duties include the following:

A review second segment code must be input with Activity Code 587. The ERCS review type for the program, preceded by a single zero, is used as a second segment code. For example, "010" is used as a second segment code for coordinator activity associated with an offer in compromise review, ERCS Review Type 10. Review Type 00 and Review Type 99 should be used on a limited basis with Activity Code 587.

All time charged to Activity Code 587 will have a "Q" in the P of RB column.

TSPC coordinator activity will not be charged to Activity Code 587.

COORDINATOR ACTIVITY (644) — Time spent performing the following activities associated with TEFRA / BBA:

No review type is required to be used with Activity Code 644.

ABATEMENT OF INTEREST (648) — Time spent to coordinate or work claims with respect to IRC 6404.

REVIEW MANAGEMENT (649) — Time spent performing management duties as the Technical Services territory manager, or first-line Technical Services manager, including persons acting in such capacities.

INDIRECT (610) — Time spent on technical duties that cannot be charged to a specific case or activity. Generally, this includes attending group meetings, reading procedural / technical material, preparing and attending technical / procedural conferences, completing forms, working on committees, managing records, preparing time reports / travel vouchers, general housekeeping (e.g., moving, ordering supplies and surveying space) and answering e-mail/VMS. Group managers will not charge time to the code. See IRM 4.9.1, Examination Technical Time Reporting System, Outline of System, Exhibit 1.

ADMINISTRATIVE DUTIES (730) — Time spent by technical personnel performing non-technical duties, such as coordinating the Combined Federal Campaign, participation in surveys, Commissioner representative duties, NTEU bank and official time, computer issues, performance discussions with manager, etc. See IRM 4.9.1 Exhibit 1 for a more complete listing of duties pertaining to this activity code.

SEPARATELY IDENTIFIED PROGRAM ACTIVITIES — Time spent by technical personnel on programs separately monitored on Table 37. Examples include: