Carolyn Schenck

CAROLYN A. SCHENCK has been employed by the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel for 15 years. She is currently National Fraud Counsel and is also Assistant Division Counsel (International) in the Small Business/Self Employed Division. In her role as National Fraud Counsel, Carolyn works closely with the Office of Fraud Enforcement to provide advice on the program’s design, development and delivery of major activities in support of the IRS's Service-wide efforts to detect and deter fraud, as well as work with colleagues in all business operating divisions (SB/SE, TE/GE, W&I, LB&I, CI) with respect to developing and implementing fraud strategies, criminal fraud referrals and application of the civil fraud penalties. She also provides coordination and leadership related to the fraud issue through Counsel, providing guidance and training to Counsels attorneys who are litigating such cases or advising agents during active examinations. In her role as Assistant Division Counsel (International), Carolyn been assigned to this for the last 13 years 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 work also involves John Doe summons actions in the area of offshore and virtual currency, enforcement strategies with respect to virtual currency, the Service’s Voluntary Disclosure Practice, 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 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, Carolyn 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.