George Hani commented on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS's) recently announced virtual conference pilot program, which will allow taxpayers to remotely attend IRS Appeals conferences beginning Aug. 1, 2017. The pilot program follows a fall 2016 IRS announcement instructing Appeals officers to conduct all conferences by phone unless a taxpayer requests a face-to-face meeting and the case meets certain criteria, which practitioners claim has made it more difficult to get in-person conferences. "I think concerns about the availability of in-person (face-to-face) conferences will remain," said Hani. In-person conferences may not be necessary or appropriate in all circumstances, he said, but "the more options available to taxpayers, the better, as long as each person who wants an in-person conference can still have one."