2017-2018 Member Biographies — 0618 Publ 4344 (PDF)

Susan E. Bernstein, New York, New York

Susan Bernstein is special counsel in the New York office at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP,

where she has been advising employers and plan sponsors on ERISA, employee

benefits and executive compensation for 24 years. Bernstein has experience working

with all types of employee plans including qualified and nonqualified plans. Bernstein is

co-chair of the Employee Benefit and Compensation Committee for the New York State

Bar Association and serves on the Executive Compensation and Benefits Committee for

the New York City Bar Association. Bernstein has written numerous articles on

employee benefit issues in addition to being a frequent speaker on employee benefit

topics. Bernstein was named one of Employee Benefit Adviser’s Most Influential

Women in Benefit Advising. Bernstein holds a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo

School of Law, received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and is a member

of the New York Bar.

Judith Boyette, San Francisco, California

Judith Boyette is a partner in Hanson Bridgett LLP, a San Francisco law firm, and is the

senior partner in the firm’s Employee Benefits Group. Prior to joining her law firm,

Boyette spent more than 10 years at the University of California as the Associate Vice

President of Human Resources and Employee Benefits. Boyette’s clients include single

employer and multi-employer plans, 403(b) plans, church plans and governmental

plans. Boyette received a J.D. from the Hastings College of the Law and is a member of

the California Bar.

Natasha Cavanaugh, Seattle, Washington

Natasha Cavanaugh is a tax attorney for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Prior to

joining the Gates Foundation, Cavanaugh served as lead tax attorney at a major public

research university where she managed complex tax matters, including the university's

medical resident FICA tax refund claim. When in private practice, Cavanaugh

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MEMBER BIOGRAPHIES

represented educational organizations, museums, private foundations and other tax

exempt organizations. Cavanaugh has a J.D., University of Virginia, M.A., Sociology

and a B.A., Economics, Stanford University.

David Danenfelzer, Austin, Texas

David Danenfelzer is a community development professional committed to advancing

the fields of nonprofit management, community planning and public finance. His current

employer, Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation, is a statewide nonprofit housing

finance corporation. Danenfelzer has helped Texas State Affordable to increase

investment in affordable housing, redesigned its multifamily bond finance programs and

created the first statewide affordable housing land bank. Danenfelzer is an alumnus of

the University of Wisconsin at Madison and received his MSCRP at the University of

Texas at Austin.

Michael Engle, Kansas City, Missouri

Michael Engle has extensive experience working with tax-exempt organizations and

governmental entities on various tax issues including employment tax. He has direct

experience working with nonprofit hospitals and colleges and universities. He has

written a number of technical articles and has been a presenter for conferences and

webinars. He is a CPA and actively involved with the AICPA. He serves on the BKD,

LLP nonprofit committee and is the leader of their health care committee. He is involved

with the AICPA and Missouri Society of CPAs.

Marcelino Gomez, Phoenix, Arizona

Marcelino Gomez previously served as the Assistant Attorney General (Tax and

Finance) at the Navajo Nation Department of Justice for 26 years and as an Assistant

General Counsel at the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Gomez

represented the tribal governments on matters related to federal and state taxes

including the risk management, employee benefit and retirement programs. Gomez is

now in private practice in Phoenix, Arizona. Gomez received a B.B.A. in Accounting

from New Mexico State University and a J.D. from the University of Texas School of

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MEMBER BIOGRAPHIES

Law. Gomez is a member of the State Bars of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, the

Navajo Nation Bar Association and the ABA Tax Section.

William Johnson, Dallas, Texas

William Johnson is the Managing Director for First Southwest Asset Management.

Johnson is responsible for managing, mentoring and strategic planning for 18 rebate

professionals who serve clients nationwide. His client relationship responsibilities

include rebate liability planning and implementation of tax law changes for tax-exempt

obligation issuers. Johnson is responsible for developing and implementing post

issuance rebate compliance policies and procedures for arbitrage clients including not

for profit, state and local government, and private activity issuers. Johnson earned his

B.B.A. degree in Accounting from Southern Methodist University and an M.S. degree in

Taxation from Texas Tech University. Johnson is a member of the AICPA, Texas

Society of CPAs and is a licensed CPA in Texas. Johnson is also registered with FINRA

as a General Securities Representative, Series 7; General Securities Principal, Series

24; Municipal Advisor Representative, Series 50 and a Uniform Securities Agent, Series

Andrew Lipkin, New York, New York

Andrew Lipkin is an attorney and now Senior Tax Counsel for New York City, and has

management responsibility for other attorneys. He provides counsel to his employer,

and is familiar with issue affecting federal, state and local governments.

Cindy M. Lott, New York, New York

Cindy Lott serves as Academic Program Director for Nonprofit Management Programs

at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies. Prior to her current position,

Lott served as Executive Director and Senior Counsel to the National State Attorneys

General Program at Columbia Law School, and within that program was the developer

and lead counsel to the Charities Regulation and Oversight Project from 2006 to 2015.

Currently, Lott is also a Senior Fellow at the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at

the Urban Institute, working in conjunction with the Institute’s Tax Policy and Charities

project. Lott develops and moderates a series of national convenings on state and

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MEMBER BIOGRAPHIES

federal regulation of the charitable sector and is engaged in research regarding

regulatory capacity and enforcement at the state level. Lott is a graduate of the Yale

Law School and clerked for the United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. Lott is

admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Indiana and Massachusetts.

Jean Swift, Mashantucket, Connecticut

Jean Swift is the Treasurer of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council where she has

served since October 2013. She chairs the Tribe’s Finance and Economic Development

Committees, and serves as Vice Chair for the Tribe’s Endowment Trust Board of

Directors. Jean is a CPA in the State of Connecticut, and a board member for the

Connecticut Community Credit Union, serving as its Supervisory Committee

Chairperson. She also serves on the board for the Eastern Connecticut Chamber of

Commerce, and is serving a three-year term on the Advisory Council for the IRS TE/GE,

representing Indian Tribal Governments. Swift has a B.S. in Business Administration

from the University of Connecticut and an M.B.A. from the Keller Graduate School of

Management at DeVry University.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON TAX EXEMPT AND GOVERNMENT ENTITIES (ACT) 2018

GENERAL REPORT

OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON

TAX EXEMPT AND GOVERNMENT ENTITIES (ACT)

This General Report is presented in connection with the 17 ^th annual public meeting of

the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and

Government Entities (ACT).

The ACT was established in 2001 with the purpose of fostering public discussion of

issues relevant to five Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TE/GE) functions. The

Charter for the ACT provides that the ACT members will present in an organized and

constructive fashion the interested public’s observations about current or proposed

TE/GE programs and procedures and will suggest improvements. As described in its

Charter, the ACT’s purpose is to provide an organized public forum for discussion

between IRS officials and representatives of the five areas within the jurisdiction of the

TE/GE Division: Employee Plans (EP), Exempt Organizations (EO), Federal, State and

Local Governments (FSLG), Indian Tribal Governments (ITG) and Tax Exempt Bonds

(TEB). This year, of the ten members of the ACT, two represent EP, three represent

EO, one represents FSLG, two represent ITG and two represent TEB. These five

groups were designed to ensure that substantive areas that may easily be otherwise

overlooked received an opportunity to communicate to the IRS about trends, concerns

and opportunities. Historically, the ACT has interacted with IRS leadership to address

issues affecting TE/GE constituents, which represents more than three million

customers and entities and approximately $245 billion in federal tax expenditures.

Although not subject to income taxes, the TE/GE entities must comply with specialized

and highly complex provisions of tax law. It is also important to note the extremely

diverse customer base served, including small local community organizations and

municipalities to major universities, huge pension funds, state governments, Indian tribal

governments and complex tax-exempt bond issuers.

For 17 years, the ACT’s members have had the opportunity to report to the IRS and the

public on specific aspects of the TE/GE interactions with its stakeholders providing an

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON TAX EXEMPT AND GOVERNMENT ENTITIES (ACT) 2018

GENERAL REPORT

important link to the stakeholder public. TE/GE uses the ACT and its functional area

subgroups for ongoing consultation in the hope of improving the administration of the

tax law and the relationship of the IRS to its constituencies. This year the ACT presents

the following five reports to the Commissioner, TE/GE Division:

Employee Plans : Recommendations Regarding Re-Opening the Determination Letter Program
Employee Plans : Recommendations Regarding Missing Participants
Exempt Organizations : Recommendations Regarding Incentivizing E-Filing for Form 990
Indian Tribal Governments : Recommendations Regarding IRS Sharing of Taxpayer Information with Tribal Government Tax Programs
Tax Exempt Bonds : Recommendations to Encourage Self-Compliance by Issuers of Tax-Advantaged Obligations

The ACT appreciated the cooperation of the IRS and access to its personnel and

resources to ensure that the ACT can present meaningful insight and recommendations

to the IRS. The ACT worked with numerous constituent groups -- their collaborative

efforts made our recommendations possible. The ACT hopes these recommendations

will prove helpful to TE/GE personnel and the communities with which they interact.

Acknowledgements and Recognition

As each year passes, we have a number of ACT members who completed their terms:

Susan Bernstein, Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP (EP)
Judith Boyette, Hanson Bridgett LLP (EP)
Natasha Cavanaugh, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (EO)
Cindy Lott, Columbia University School of Professional Studies (EO)
Marcelino Gomez, Private Practice (ITG)
David Danzenfelzer, Texas State Affordable Housing Association (EO)
William Johnson, First Southwest (TEB)

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON TAX EXEMPT AND GOVERNMENT ENTITIES (ACT) 2018

GENERAL REPORT

Each member has made significant contributions to the ACT. I would like to thank each

of these members for their support, unique insights, wisdom, service and friendship. It

has been a pleasure and a privilege to get to know and work with all the departing

members.

The ACT wishes to acknowledge and express our ongoing gratitude for the IRS’s

willingness to look to the ACT for its insights. We would like to thank IRS leadership for

their ongoing support of our activities over the past year. The ACT specifically thanks

Commissioner John Koskinen and Acting Commissioner David Kautter for their

leadership, Commissioner Sunita Lough and Acting Commissioner David Horton for

their input and interest, all the TE/GE Division directors, and all the TE/GE staff for the

support and assistance you’ve provided to the ACT throughout the year. The members

of the ACT recognize that the IRS continues to dedicate significant resources to the

ACT, even in light of very significant constraints on its operations. However, the insights

provided by the ACT reports would not be possible without the IRS’s greatest strength –

its dedicated employees – and their willingness to work in a collaborative and open

manner with the ACT. Special thanks to Mark O’Donnell, the Designated Federal Officer

to the ACT and TE/GE’s Communications & Liaison Director and his team, Melaney

Partner and Nicole Swire for handling the logistics for our meetings, conference calls

and technology needs for surveys and other information-gathering activities. Special

thanks, as well, to all those who participated in the surveys, focus groups and other

information gathering critical to the analysis and recommendations made in the various

subcommittee reports.

Lastly, in that this report also concludes my term on the ACT, I include a few personal

notes of appreciation. For me, serving on the ACT for the past three years has been a

rewarding personal and professional experience, and being chair this year has been

exceptionally interesting as I have been able to participate in dramatic changes being

made within TE/GE and to the ACT. I enjoyed working with and learning from all the

TE/GE leadership and the other ACT members with whom I have served. I would

particularly like to take this opportunity to thank Vice Chair Natasha Cavanaugh for all

her wisdom and efforts.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON TAX EXEMPT AND GOVERNMENT ENTITIES (ACT) 2018

GENERAL REPORT

On behalf of the ACT, we hope that our input has been helpful to the IRS and to the

constituent groups that we serve. We further hope that the ACT continues to have an

important role in the future in fostering public discussion of issues relevant to five TE/GE

functions and improving the administration of the tax law and the relationship of the IRS

to its constituencies.

Susan E. Bernstein

Chair, June 2017 to 2018

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ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON

TAX EXEMPT AND GOVERNMENT ENTITIES

(ACT)

Employee Plans Subgroup

Recommendations Regarding Re-Opening the Determination Letter Program

Judith Boyette, Project Leader

Susan E. Bernstein

Andrew G. Lipkin

June 7, 2018

EMPLOYEE PLANS

RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING RE-OPENING THE DETERMINATION LETTER

PROGRAM

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................. 11

II. BACKGROUND ................................................................................................. 11

III. RECOMMENDATIONS ..................................................................................... 14

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON TAX EXEMPT AND GOVERNMENT ENTITIES (ACT) 2018

EMPLOYEE PLANS

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 2015-2016 report by the Employee Plans Subgroup (EP Subgroup) of the ACT

examined the major restructuring of the Internal Revenue Service determination letter

program for qualified plans (the Determination Letter Program) and the resulting impact

on the various constituents of the employee plans community (EP Community). As a

follow-up to that report, this EP Subgroup has chosen to further analyze and make

recommendations regarding the circumstances under which it may be appropriate for

the IRS Office of Employee Plans (EP) (the part of the Tax Exempt and Government

Entities Division (TE/GE) of the IRS responsible for qualified pension plans) to re-open

the Determination Letter Program under certain defined circumstances. In undertaking

this analysis, the EP Subgroup is acutely aware of the constraints that have been

placed on EP due to budgetary shortfalls and personnel reductions. The EP Community

greatly appreciates the willingness of EP to consider opening the Determination Letter

Program for individually designed retirement plans that have made amendments since

the issuance of their last favorable determination letter. The willingness of the IRS and

the Department of Treasury to consider a potential expansion of the Determination

Letter Program for a limited time period was publicly acknowledged in Notice 2018-24. ¹