George Hani commented on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS's) announcement to change the Large Business and International Division's (LB&I's) examination process, which will shift to an issue-based approach for conducting exams. Hani said he is disappointed that more flexibility wasn't introduced in the informal refund claims process as IRS exam teams will now accept informal claims only within 30-days of the opening conference. "I think a strict cutoff such as the one adopted is unnecessarily bureaucratic," he said. "In the spirit of transparency and cooperation, which seem to be the bedrock of this document, it seems that it would be a more efficient use of resources for a taxpayer to make the exam team aware of a claim through an informal claim." Hani added that the taxpayer could then work with that team to identify what it needed to address the claim, stressing the importance of an informal dialogue.