Carolyn Schenck

IRS
Assistant Division Counsel (International)

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CAROLYN A. SCHENCK has been employed by the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel for 13 years.  She is currently Assistant Division Counsel (International) in the Small Business/Self Employed Division and has been assigned for the last 11 as counsel to the Service’s Offshore Compliance Initiatives.  Carolyn is responsible for coordination and management of all international and offshore tax and Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) matters under the jurisdiction of SB/SE Division Counsel.  She ensures that SB/SE attorneys consistently apply law and policy in international and offshore tax and FBAR matters, including non-docketed cases and cases docketed in the U.S. Tax Court, U.S. District Courts, the Court of Federal Claims, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals.  Carolyn also provides guidance to and serves as the principal legal advisor and contact point on international and offshore tax and FBAR matters to the SB/SE Division and the Withholding and International Individual Compliance function of the LB&I Division.  Her international work also involves John Doe summons actions, the Service’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure programs and Streamline Filing Compliance Procedures, working with IRS Treaty partners on cross-border issues and cases, and conducting nationwide trainings for attorneys and agents on investigative techniques, evidence, and substantive tax issues.  She has litigated numerous cases in U.S. Tax Court on behalf of the IRS. She also works with IRS special enforcement agents on cases involving fraud, foreign accounts, and foreign reporting penalties; she also assists the Department of Justice in cases involving criminal tax prosecutions, injunctions, summons enforcement, and abusive tax return preparers and promoters.  She has been an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University School of Law for Honors Appellate Advocacy.  Prior to joining the IRS, she was an Attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission, Division of Enforcement.  She also worked for Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit and Chief Judge H. Robert Mayer of the Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals.  Before her law career, Ms. Schenck worked for U.S. Senator John McCain and as a weapons analyst.  She is a member of the California and Maryland state bars and holds a J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law, and a B.S. summa cum laude from Northern Arizona University.

About Us: The IRS is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury and one of the world's most efficient tax administrators. In fiscal year 2012, the IRS collected more than $2.5 trillion in revenue and processed more than 237 million tax returns.