The IRS and Their Pesky Summonses: A Primer on Enforcement and Common Defenses

The IRS uses summonses to get information from taxpayers and third parties for things like auditing tax returns and collecting taxes. Summonses don’t establish guilt or innocence, they just gather information. The IRS is allowed to issue summonses to taxpayers, witnesses, and third-party recordkeepers. For criminal investigations, the IRS can also issue summonses. Once a case is referred to the Department of Justice for prosecution, the IRS can’t issue any more summonses. The IRS can issue different kinds of summonses to get information from people or companies. When they issue a summons, they have to follow specific rules to make sure it’s valid. The information they ask for doesn’t have to be directly related to a specific case, but it has to potentially help with their investigation. And the person who issues the summons has to have the authority to do so. The IRS must properly serve a summons to a taxpayer. This means delivering a copy to the person or leaving it at their usual place of abode. The IRS can also serve a summons to third-party recordkeepers by certified or registered mail. If a summoned party refuses to comply, the IRS must seek enforcement through a U.S. district court and obtain a court order to compel them to appear. The summoned party can challenge the enforcement of the summons in a hearing. If the district court orders the summons to be enforced and the summoned party still does not comply, they may be held in civil contempt. A taxpayer can also seek to quash a summons if they have a legitimate reason, but they can only do so if they were entitled to notice of the summons. If the IRS wants to get information from someone else about your taxes, you have the right to ask a court to stop them. You have to do this within 20 days of getting a notice from the IRS. You have to send a copy of your request to the person who has the information and to the IRS. If you don’t do this on time, the court won’t listen to your request. If the IRS doesn’t get your request within 23 days, they can go ahead and get the information anyway. If the IRS shows that they have a good reason for the request, it’s up to you to prove that they shouldn’t get the information. Got it? If you’re served a summons by the IRS, you have a right to argue why it should be cancelled, but you can’t always question IRS officials about why they issued it. You also can’t always ask for all the evidence before the hearing. You have to show there was a good reason to cancel the summons, and you might get a chance to question the IRS officials who issued it. Different court circuits have different rules about this. The Supreme Court changed the standard for obtaining an adversary hearing in U.S. v. Clarke. Taxpayers now have to show specific facts or circumstances that suggest bad faith on the IRS’s part to challenge a summons. The IRS also can’t demand privileged information, and taxpayers can invoke the Fifth Amendment to protect themselves. Even if a summons seeks relevant information, it can still be overbroad and burdensome. If a taxpayer refuses to comply with a court order to comply with a summons, they can be found in contempt and face penalties. The statute of limitations is suspended if there’s incomplete compliance or a challenge to the summons. Consider discussing any privileged information with the IRS agent before challenging a summons. The IRS hired a private law firm in 2014 to help with legal issues. There is a dispute over documents that Microsoft didn’t give to the IRS. Facebook also ignored requests from the IRS and now there’s a court hearing about it. The IRS can use third parties to get records from taxpayers and they can also get records from other sources to compare with the taxpayer’s records. The IRS can issue a summons to get information from a taxpayer. The taxpayer has the right to challenge the summons in court. If the IRS doesn’t follow the rules for giving notice about the summons to the taxpayer, the summons might not be enforced. The taxpayer can also face penalties or be arrested if they don’t comply with the summons. This is a list of legal cases and laws related to IRS summonses and subpoena enforcement. It includes references to various court cases and Internal Revenue Code sections, as well as some legal terminology and citations. This text includes references to legal cases and statutes, as well as the background and qualifications of a lawyer named Harris L. Bonnette, Jr., who specializes in tax law. It also mentions the Tax Law Section and its members.

The last paragraph talks about the principles of duty and service to the public within the legal profession.

In simpler language: This text contains information about legal cases, tax law, and a lawyer’s qualifications. It also mentions a section of lawyers who focus on tax law and their guiding principles.

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/the-irs-and-their-pesky-summonses-a-primer-on-enforcement-and-common-defenses/