Taxation & Estate Planning

The FOIA and IRS Link

By Darrin Mish

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) makes it obligatory for the IRS to be responsible in handling your tax information.Under current rules, you are allowed to see any and all information or documents held by the IRS that pertains to you and your family. Even in requesting a lot of information, all you need to do is pay a token sum as you make your request and the IRS has to honor it.
It is in this way that the FOIA and the IRS are linked.When it comes to making a FOIA request, most of us only think of requesting something extremely critical like our FBI file.  But few think about requesting for their personal IRS details when being audited or even for no reason out of the ordinary.However, if you are being audited or you are just inquisitive as to how the IRS uses your file or who looks at it, you can ask for a copy of all information as it pertains to your file.

But there are some exeptions that could deny your request.Such exceptions include the request of any documentation ruled to be classified by the government on the grounds of national security. Another common exception has to do with you requesting information for someone other than yourself or your immediate family. These are the main ones that apply to everybody.  There are other exceptions but they would not likely cause your request to be rejected.

Other than these nine exceptions, there are also exclusions that could prevent you from seeing your own IRS file.For example, your FOIA request can be turned down if the IRS is pursuing a criminal investigation into your file. There is another exclusion in place to help protect the identity of a criminal informant who may have been used to pursue a criminal investigation in your file.  However, these exclusions are only in certain unique cases and do not apply to most regular taxpayers who want information on their own files.
The FOIA hashas allowed millions of people to better understand how the tax structure in this country works. An open and honest IRS works for the people and not against them. This has in a large part been due to the enforcement of the FOIA that allows every taxpayer to request and obtain their own tax information.You can learn more about FOIA and the IRS on the IRS website or the FOIA website..

Darrin T. Mish is a veteran, nationally recognized tax attorney who has focused on providing IRS help to taxpayers for over a decade. He regularly travels the country training other attorneys, CPAs and enrolled agents on how to handle their toughest cases with the IRS. He is highly ranked among the top attorneys in the country, with an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and a perfect 10 on Avvo.com. Martindale-Hubbell has also honored him with a listing in their Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He is a member of the American Society of IRS Problem Solvers and the Tax Freedom Institute. With clients on every continent but Antarctica, he has what it takes to solve your IRS problems no matter where you live in the world. If you would like more information about his practice and how he can help you, please call his office at (813) 229-7100 or toll free at 1-888-GET-MISH.

The FOIA and IRS Link is a post from: IRS Tax Problem Solver Blog - IRS Help

Full post as published by IRS Problem Solver Blog on February 26, 2010 (boomark / email).