Taxpayer Bill of Rights President signed this into law on July 22, 1998. Key provisions include: • An independent board. A nine-member board, made up of six private citizens, the Treasury secretary, the IRS employee representative, will set long-range strategy for the tax agency and watch over IRS management. • Capital gains. Currently, investors must hold on to investments at least 18 months to qualify for the low 20% capital gains tax rate instead of the 28% rate. This law will shorten the holding period to 12 months. (Effective retroactive to January 1, 1998) • 'Innocent spouses.' This law will protect taxpayers from being pursued by the IRS for taxes run-up by their former spouses. Under current law, husbands and wives who sign a joint tax return are each liable for all the taxes owed that year, even if they later divorce or separate. The new bill will limit the tax liability for a divorced or separated taxpayer to income he or she earned individually. • Burden of proof. The burden of proof in tax cases will be shifted from the taxpayer to the IRS. • Penalties. Penalties and interest will stop accruing after 18 months if the IRS hasn't contacted a taxpayer. Critics had complained that interest and penalties could grow unchecked, sometimes doubling the original tax bill, without taxpayers even knowing they owed the IRS anything. • Confidentiality. Attorney-client confidentiality will be extended to accountants. • Meals. Employees will not have to pay taxes on meals provided by their employers. • Roth IRAs. This law will make it easier for older taxpayers to convert from traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs) to Roth IRAs. Roth IRAs are more attractive than traditional IRAs because money invested in them grows tax-free; in traditional IRAs, investors have to pay taxes on gains when they withdraw money. • Taxpayers must start withdrawing money from traditional IRAs at age 70 1/2. The money they take out of traditional IRAs currently counts as income and pushes some taxpayers over the $100,000 limit, making them ineligible for Roth IRAs. Under this law, money withdrawn from traditional IRA's no longer will count as income toward the $100,000 limit. This will make more senior taxpayers eligible for Roth IRAs. The reforms in this law will help to create an agency which respects the American taxpayer and will hopefully work with, not against them in the collection of federal taxes.