IRS issues guidance regarding information document request contents.

• Author: Gribens, Bruce K.
• Position: Brief Article

On June 3,1996, in response to an AICPA request, the IRS issued guidance to all Regional Chief Compliance Officers on the contents of the Service's Information Document Requests (IDRs).

On Oct. 31, 1995, the AICPA's Tax Practice and Procedures Committee submitted to IRS National Office executives several examples of IDRs that were overly broad and unfocused. On May 10, 1996, the AICPA followed up with correspondence to David Harris, Director, Coordinated Examination Program, requesting that guidance be issued to address these type of requests. As a result of that correspondence, Thomas Smith, Assistant Commissioner (Examinations), issued a memorandum to all Regional Chief Compliance Officers related to improving the IDR process when requesting collateral information. Mr. Smith stressed the importance of the IDR process to the overall success of the Large Corporate Examination Program.

The memorandum provides the following specific guidance to all revenue agents:

[] Involve the taxpayer in the IDR process and the determination of a response time for requests.

[] Discuss the contents of an IDR prior to its issuance, or at least at the time of issuance, to seek clarification and solicit possible alternative methods of meeting the IDR objective in a more efficient manner.

[] Refrain from issuing overly broad IDRs and focus IDRs on specific information needed to...