Ezel / IRS Rulings / 201117029

CCA 201117029: IRS files could not be used to distribute a public Tax Court memo

Number
201117029
Outcome
Advice
Document type
Chief Counsel Advice
IRS subject
Disclosure
Topics
Procedure, penalties, and administration
Code sections
§ 6103
Ruling dated
March 3, 2011
Publicly released
April 29, 2011
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 2011, which can't be cited as precedent. Ask about your situation and see what the current Code and IRS guidance say, with citations.

Currency note: this determination was released in 2011
Statutory amendments, regulation changes, court decisions, or later IRS guidance may have changed the analysis since then. Treat this page as historical context, not current tax advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, threshold, or position mentioned here.
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

Chief Counsel Advice addressed whether IRS employees could give members of a law school tax procedure class a copy of a Tax Court trial memorandum that was already part of the court's public record. The advice stated that employees could not provide a copy from IRS files. Because information placed in the court record was no longer subject to section 6103, the employees could instead obtain the document from PACER and provide it, with the source properly attributed and the public version verified against the copy to be released.

Ruling snapshot

  • Question: Could IRS employees distribute a Tax Court trial memorandum from IRS files when the memorandum was already a public court record?
  • Outcome: Advice given.
  • Key authorities: IRC § 6103; IRM 11.3.13.3(8); PACER.

Full text (IRS public release)

ID: CCA_2011030312453624 Number: 201117029
Release Date: 4/29/2011
Office: --------------
UILC: 6103.02-08

From: ---------------
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 12:45:38 PM
To: -------------------
Cc: -------------------------------
Subject: RE: Disclosure Question

-------- while a tax court memo filed with the court is a public record, we cannot provide, from our files, a copy of the trial memo to members of the tax procedure class from the law school so that they can be up to speed when attending an upcoming trial.

The 9th Circuit has held that information actually placed in the court’s record is no longer subject to 6103. Even though your files will contain an exact copy of what was filed with the Tax Court, if you decide to provide the information to the tax procedure class, you should access the information from PACER and provide that information.

IRM 11.3.13.3.(8) states that:

Before releasing information from a document that has become part of the

public record, IRS employees should verify that the information conforms in all

respects to what was made public. The source and attribution rules should be

followed; i.e., obtain the document from the public source and attribute the

released information to the sourced document.

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