By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
The onslaught of corruption that’s accompanied Donald Trump’s return to the presidency appears unmatched in American history.
Can it get worse? Sure, especially if Trump succeeds in politicizing the Internal Revenue Service’s interpretation of the byzantine U.S. tax code.
Now, with Trump’s nominee for IRS chief counsel awaiting Senate scrutiny, a firm led by former Trump insiders has registered to lobby the IRS over a private tax ruling sought by a Delray Beach insurance and financial planning company — an unusual move that underscores the value of political access in the Trump administration.
The chief counsel to the IRS is the primary legal advisor to the IRS commissioner “on all matters pertaining to the interpretation, administration and enforcement of the Internal Revenue Code,” according to the IRS’s website.
Trump’s recent nominee for the job is James Gadwood, vice chair of the tax department at Miller & Chevalier. The firm represents the president’s New York company, DJT Holdings LLC, which Gadwood listed among his sources of income on an executive branch financial disclosure form submitted to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
The Senate Finance Committee has yet to set a confirmation hearing date for Gadwood, but he can expect a rocky reception. The committee’s ranking member, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, said after Gadwood’s nomination, “Any nominee willing to be a part of Trump’s corruption of the IRS and industrial-scale violation of taxpayer privacy laws will face a lot of tough questions, particularly on the sweetheart audit immunity deal Trump handed himself and his family. As always, this nominee needs to go through the Finance Committee’s rigorous vetting process.”
SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY
Trump acolytes are already seizing the opportunity.
On June 18, Javelin Advisors LLC, a Washington, D.C. firm run by former Trump Organization chief compliance lawyer George Sorial and ex-Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller, registered to lobby the IRS on behalf of The Policy Shop LLC. The three-year-old Delray Beach company, founded by Jonathan Moulton and Jonathan Globerman, is an insurance and financial planning outfit aimed at “high net worth individuals” that boasts of “challenging the status quo” and “utilizing innovative life insurance products as a tool for wealth creation.”
Financial innovation necessarily involves deciphering the legality of novel tax avoidance strategies. And that’s how Javelin’s lobbying registration describes its work for The Policy Shop: “lobbying and other consulting services related to client’s Private Letter Ruling request to the IRS.”
Private letter rulings are written statements, usually issued by the chief counsel, that interpret and apply tax laws to a specific set of facts. Taxpayers, or in this case a Florida licensed insurance agency, can request them to seek advance certainty on the tax consequences of specific or proposed transactions.
For example, The Policy Shop may have pitched a new kind of life insurance policy they’d like to sell to their clients. If so, they’d likely ask if it is legal under the tax code. If the IRS’s chief counsel says yes, it’s like money in the bank.
Javelin’s lobbying registration, filed by Sorial, stands out for a couple of reasons. The Lobbying Disclosure Act doesn’t ordinarily require registration to discuss a specific client’s tax matters with the IRS’s Office of Chief Counsel, and a Washington lobbying expert said it is highly unusual to lobby for a pending private letter request to that office.
The registration doesn’t say who Sorial intends to lobby in search of a favorable interpretation of the tax law. Sorial did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
But the message to prospective clients on the front page of Javelin’s website is explicitly clear: “Founded by insiders. Defined by access,” it says over a background photo of the White House.
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