CCA 200851077: Handing a document back to the person who sent it is not a disclosure

Plain-English summary

A two-sentence answer to a disclosure question, and the two sentences are alternative grounds rather than one argument.

Return information is confidential, and an IRS employee who hands it to the wrong person commits a disclosure. That rule makes employees careful about sending anything out, sometimes about material that came in from outside in the first place. The question here was whether a copy of exactly what someone had sent the Service could be sent back to them.

The first answer is that the question does not arise. Returning to a person what that person themselves sent in is not a disclosure. Disclosure means making information known to someone who does not already have it; the sender already knows the contents of their own submission, so nothing confidential moves. The reasoning is short because the point is close to definitional, and it depends entirely on the copy being of exactly what was received. Anything the Service added, such as a stamp, an annotation, or a document from elsewhere in the file, would not be covered by it.

The second answer is a fallback. Even if it were a disclosure, section 6103(k)(6) would authorize it in this instance. That provision lets employees disclose return information to the extent necessary to obtain information they need for a tax investigation. It is a working authority, drawn on when an investigator has to show a third party something in order to get an answer. Offering it as a backstop lets the recipient act without having to be sure the first answer is right.

Whatever the writer suggested doing beyond that is redacted, and so is the closing block. The visible advice is only that returning the copy is permissible, not how or in what form. The release is a working answer in an email chain, and it says the conclusion holds "in this instance," so it turns on facts that were known to the correspondents and are not in the released text.

This is a clean digital release rather than a scan, so no OCR correction was needed. Kept as released: the section cited as "IRC 6103(k)(6)" without a section symbol; the contraction "It's"; and the redaction dashes, including the trailing dash after the greeting.

Ruling snapshot

• Question: May the Service send someone back a copy of exactly what that person submitted to it?
• Outcome: Advice given. Yes. Returning to someone what that person sent to the Service is not a disclosure, and even if it were, IRC section 6103(k)(6) would authorize it in this instance. The specific suggestion that follows is redacted.
• Key authorities: IRC section 6103; IRC section 6103(k)(6).

Full text (IRS public release)

ID: CCA_2008091014511653 Number: 200851077
Office: -------------- Release Date: 12/19/2008

UILC: 6103.02-08, 6103.11-06

From: ----------------
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 2:51:18 PM
To: -------------------
Cc:
Subject: RE: Disclosure question with ---------------

Hi -------- -

I see no problem with you sending back a copy of exactly what you received. It's not a disclosure to
return to someone what that person sent to us; and even if it were a disclosure, IRC 6103(k)(6) would
authorize it in this instance. I suggest that -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me.

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