The Denial of IRS Access to Its Adversary's Playbook
27 Pages Posted: 27 Jun 2015 Last revised: 7 Aug 2015
Date Written: June 24, 2015
Abstract
When examining a corporate taxpayer, the IRS often seeks special accounting documents called tax accrual workpapers. These workpapers often contain privileged documents, but the IRS does not care. It believes it is entitled to the documents despite that the work product doctrine protects the documents from the IRS's investigation authority. Although the law seems clear, some courts appear to have ignored the law and permitted the IRS to obtain the documents in some cases. Differing results under similar circumstances have made the law less clear. The IRS should stop trying to obtain taxpayers' work product, and the Supreme Court should clear up the law with respect to these documents.
Keywords: Tax, taxation, tax procedure, IRS, privilege, work product, work product protection
JEL Classification: H00, H20, H25, H29, H80, K00, K19, K20, K29, K30, K34, K39, K40, K41, K49, M40, M41, M49
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation