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ARE BLOGGERS PART OF IRS COMMUNICATION STRATEGY?

January 28, 2008

The TaxProf notes a Tax Analysts piece ($link) showing the IRS is aware of these "blog" things. He quotes the article:

The tax press has played an increasingly important role in the IRS's communications strategy as the number and form of media outlets have proliferated over the last 25 to 35 years, IRS Chief Counsel Donald Korb said at a January 18 session of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation midyear meeting in Lake Las Vegas, Nev.

...

Tax bloggers have gone a step beyond what traditional media can do and have "democratized" the way tax news and other information reach people who may not have had access to such information before the Internet age, Korb said. People no longer have to have subscriptions to tax law publications or be in Washington to get that information, he said. Tax blogs such as TaxProf Blog, which is run by Paul Caron, a University of Cincinnati College of Law professor, "are a great tool to get information out to a particular group," he said.

It's interesting. Paul Caron, the TaxProf, is king of our little tax blogging world, but I don't get the impression that the IRS is doing anything to feed him information. He has an amazing ability to post on everything, but as far as I can tell he just works hard and writes well and fast. He doesn't appear to have special insider access.

I've certainly not been contacted by the IRS in my role as a blogger. While our visitor logs show we have readers in the IRS and the Treasury, if there is an IRS blog-relation strategy, it doesn't include me. In the world of tax policy, I remain outside the gates.

Roving Tax Update Correspondent outside the Treasury Building, looking in.

Tags: TaxProf.

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