IRS employees may receive unredacted ruling for tax administration

Number

201550038

Outcome

Advice

Document type

Chief Counsel Advice

IRS subject

Disclosure to Federal Employees for Tax Administration Purposes

Topics

Procedure, penalties, and administration

Code sections

§ 6103

Ruling dated

November 6, 2015

Publicly released

December 11, 2015

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 2015, 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

Chief Counsel advised that IRC § 6103(h)(1) permitted disclosure of an unredacted private letter ruling to a Treasury attorney and revenue agent who needed it for tax administration. The requester should ordinarily follow the prescribed records-request procedure so the request and its context are logged. The ruling could not be passed to a promoter or taxpayer under that provision, and it had to be marked as third-party return information and kept separate from the taxpayer's case file.

Ruling snapshot

Question: Could an unredacted private letter ruling be disclosed to Treasury employees who needed it for a tax administration function?
Outcome: Advice given
Key authorities: IRC § 6103(h)(1); CCDM 37.1.1.6(3)

Full text (IRS public release)

ID: CCA_2015110614390447
UILC: 6103.08-00

Number: 201550038
Release Date: 12/11/2015
From:
Sent: Friday, November 06, 2015 2:39:04 PM
To:
Cc:
Bcc:
Subject: RE: Question regarding use of plr for self-created goodwill?

-------,

Our advice is provided below, explaining that ------ should request an un-redacted copy of the PLR from the ---------, ---------------------------- Branch.

There is no section 6103 problem with disclosure in this instance. -----------------(----- attorney) and -------------------(revenue agent) have demonstrated they have a need to know the information in order to perform a tax administration function. Therefore, disclosure to them is permissible under section 6103(h)(1).

There is no legal problem with you providing the un-redacted copy directly to ------ or ----
-------. However, the CCDM should be followed when possible. CCDM 37.1.1.6(3) states that ------ should request a copy from the --------------------------------------- Branch by submitting a memorandum, specifying the records needed. This process is used to keep a log of requests for the record and the context of those requests.

It should be noted that 6103(h)(1) only permits disclosure to officers or employees of the Department of the Treasury and does not provide a basis for the un-redacted copy to be passed along to the promoter or a taxpayer. Also, the un-redacted copy of the PLR would be considered third party return information and therefore it should be maintained separately from the taxpayer’s case file and be clearly marked as third-party return information.

If you have any further questions, please contact me. Thanks.

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