Regarding asking to be transferred to a tax law specialist when talking to the IRS, this issue is not a matter of tax law but is instead a matter of IRS procedure (the behavior of the IRS Automated Underreporter program, the procedures outlined in the Internal Revenue Manual, and the examiner interpreting the IRM), as macuser_22 indicated. Still, an IRS specialist in the area of the reporting of retirement-account distributions will be able to provide better guidance than a first-level IRS phone rep. A first-level phone rep will likely just provide instruction to submit an explanation statement.
