TAX ANALYSTS,
Plaintiff,
v.
INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE,
Defendant.
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
FINAL STIPULATED ORDER REGARDING IN CAMERA REVIEW
Plaintiff Tax Analysts and defendant Internal Revenue Service (the "Service"), by and through undersigned counsel, hereby submit this stipulated order to resolve the defendant's January 12, 1999 Motion for Leave to Submit Documents for In Camera Review under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552(A)(4)(B). This stipulated order supplements and finalizes the stipulation filed February 8, 1999.
1. Legal Memoranda ("LMs")
Subject to approval by this Court, the plaintiff consents to the submission of Legal Memoranda numbers 91-61, 90-82, 91-27 and 92-3 to the Court for in camera review and inspection.
2. Technical Assistances ("TAs")
The Technical Assistances ("TAs") remaining at issue in this case were created by components of the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel ("OCC") and issued either to other OCC components or a component of the Internal Revenue Service. "Short form" TAs and TAs to the field are no longer in dispute. The defendant has selected 44 examples of "long form" TAs for in camera review. "Long form" TAs contain citations to case law, statutes, regulations or other legal authorities and analysis thereof. The defendant selected the TAs in a manner to ensure a representative sample of the universe of "long form" TAs that the defendant is withholding in this case. (See attached declaration of Ashton P. Trice) The selected TAs are categorized by the OCC component that issued the TA, as listed below:
a. TAs prepared by the technical divisions of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Domestic) and issued to district or regional offices of the Service or the OCC, or Service Centers, with respect to a specific taxpayer or group of identifiable taxpayers:
1). TAs prepared by Office Assistant Chief Counsel (Corporate):
TA 45-612-93
TA 45-2153-93
2). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel (Income Tax & Accounting)
TA 45-1670-93
TA 45-2748-92
3). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel (Financial Institutions & Products)
TA 45-2198-93
TA 45-1896-93
4). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel (Passthroughs & Special Industries)
TA 45-326-94
TA 45-2373-93
b. TAs prepared by technical divisions of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Domestic) and issued to the district or regional offices of the Service or OCC, or Service Centers, that do not relate to a specific taxpayer or group of identifiable taxpayers:
1). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel (Income Tax & Accounting)
TA 45-1810-93
TA 45-0287-94
2). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel (Financial Institutions & Products)
TA 45-2926-92
TA 45-2673-93
3). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel (Passthroughs & Special Industries)
TA 45-895-93
TA 45-775-94
c. TAs prepared by technical divisions of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Domestic) and issued to program managers in the national office of the Service that do not relate to a specific taxpayer or group of identifiable taxpayers:
1). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel
(Income Tax & Accounting)
TA 45-2233-93
TA 45-2820-92
2). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel
(Financial Institutions & Products)
TA 45-955-93
TA 45-1642-94
3). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel
(Passthroughs & Special Industries)
TA 45-2164-93
TA 45-307-93
d. TAs prepared by technical divisions of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Domestic) and issued to other national Office of Chief Counsel components (or prepared by a national Office of Chief Counsel component and issued to the Assistant Commissioner (Employee Plans & Exempt Organizations)) in the context of published guidance in the form of private letter rulings or technical assistance memoranda:
1). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel (Corporate)
TA 31-107-93
TA 31-87-93
2). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel
(Income Tax & Accounting)
TA 31-1954-94
TA 31-230-94
3). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel
(Financial Institutions & Products)
TA 31-2121-92
TA 31-1281-94
4). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel
(Passthroughs & Special Industries)
TA 31-1237-94
TA 31-1235-94
e. TAs prepared by technical divisions of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Domestic) and issued directly to specific taxpayers:
1). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel
(Income Tax & Accounting)
TA 45-939-93
TA 45-259-93
2). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel
(Financial Institutions & Products)
TA 45-220-93
TA 45-86-93
f. TAs prepared by technical divisions of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Domestic) and issued to program managers in the national office of the Service:
1). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel
(Income Tax & Accounting)
TA 45-1974-93
TA 45-1796-93
2). TAs prepared by Office of Assistant Chief Counsel
(Financial Institutions & Products)
TA 45-1383-93
TA 45-2473-93
g. TAs prepared by Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Employee Benefits & Exempt Organizations) and issued to technical divisions of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Domestic):
TA 45-155-94
TA 45-1011-94
TA 45-2608-94
TA 45-2535-93
h. TAs prepared by the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (International) and issued to the technical divisions of the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Domestic).
TA 626-92
TA 938-92
TA 902-93
TA 251-94
3. Schedule for Submission to Court
The defendant agrees that within 30 days of the date the Court approves this stipulated order it will deliver the LMs and TAs listed above in a sealed package to the chambers of the honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly along with a Vaughn index describing, paragraph by paragraph, and where appropriate, sentence by sentence, the nature of the withheld material in the documents, including whether the withheld material contains analysis and the number and type of legal citations contained therein. See Vaughn v. Rosen, 484 F.2d 820 (D.C. Cir. 1973). The defendant further agrees that on the date it submits the documents for in camera inspection it will file the accompanying Vaugh index with the clerk of the court and serve it on the plaintiff.
The defendant respectfully asks this:
2/18/99
Date
MICHAEL J. SALEM
SAMUEL A. MITCHELL
JASON S. ZARIN
Trial Attorneys, Tax Division
U.S. Department of Justice
P.O. Box 227
Washington, D.C. 20044
(202) 514-9641
Counsel for the defendant
OF COUNSEL:
WILMA A. LEWIS
United States Attorney
The plaintiff consents to the requested relief:
2/18/99
Date
WILLIAM A. DOBROVIR, ESQ.*
D.C. Bar No. 030148
Suite 102
Culpeper Street
Warrenton, VA 20186-3305
(540) 341-2183
Counsel for the plaintiff