Qualitative employee appraisals are not ROTERs

Number

201004026

Outcome

Advice

Document type

Chief Counsel Advice

IRS subject

ADMIN:LEGAL:Evaluations

Topics

Income and deductions

Code sections

§ 801

Ruling dated

February 18, 2009

Publicly released

January 29, 2010

Source

View Official PDF

Apply this to your situation

This page covers legal advice the IRS Office of Chief Counsel wrote for IRS staff, issued in 2010, which can't be cited as precedent. Ask about your situation and see what the current Code and IRS guidance say, with citations.

Not precedent. Under 26 U.S.C. § 6110(k)(3), this written determination may not be used or cited as precedent. It is advice from the IRS Office of Chief Counsel to IRS personnel on the facts they presented, and identifying details were redacted by the IRS before release. The official IRS release (linked on this page as a PDF) is the authoritative source.

About this page: The plain-English summary and ruling snapshot below were written by Ezel based on the official IRS release. The full text is the IRS's own document.

View official IRS release (PDF)

Plain-English summary

This Chief Counsel Advice considers whether statements in case narratives were ROTERs, records of tax enforcement results. It concludes that statements appearing to be qualitative appraisals of an employee's professional judgment about action in a particular case were not ROTERs under 26 CFR § 801.6(d)(2). The advice explains that a manager may discuss an employee's judgment in achieving a particular tax enforcement result based on review of the employee's work on that case, even though tax enforcement results may not be used to evaluate employees or set production goals or quotas.

Ruling snapshot

Question: Are qualitative appraisals of an employee's judgment in a particular case ROTERs?
Outcome: Advice given.
Key authorities: 26 CFR § 801.6(d)(2).

Full text (IRS public release)

ID: CCA-218202-09 Number: 201004026
Release Date: 1/29/2010
Office: ------------------
UILC: 01A.26.00-00

From: ---------------
Sent: Wednesday February 18, 2009 2:02 pm
To: ------------------------
Cc: ----------------------------
Subject: 1204 Advice

----------

This is to confirm our telephone conversation of last week in which I concurred with your conclusion that the highlighted statements in the narratives appeared to be qualitative appraisals of the employee's professional judgment regarding the appropriate action to be taken in a particular case, and were not ROTERs. 26 CFR 801.6(d)(2), which defines ROTERs, specifically excludes "tax enforcement results of individual cases when used to determine whether an employee exercised appropriate judgment in pursuing enforcement of the tax laws based upon a review of the employee's work on that individual case." While the regulation states that a manager cannot use a tax enforcement result to evaluate an employee or suggestion production goals or quotas, the manager is allowed to discuss an employee's exercise of judgment in achieving a particular TER in a case based on a review of the employee's work on that individual case.

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