IRS to Produce Some Documents in Amazon Transfer Pricing Case

Pursuant to Tax Court Rule 50(f), orders shall not be treated as precedent, except as otherwise provided.

To assist the Court in resolving these claims of privilege, the Chief Judge authorized the submission of documents for in camera review by Special Trial Judge Lewis Carluzzo. The Court ordered that each party select for in camera review 50 documents marked in the privilege log as protected by the deliberative process privilege. Respondent provided the selected documents to Judge Carluzzo.

On August 25, 2014, after conducting an in camera review, Judge Carluzzo issued an order finding that respondent had properly claimed the deliberative process privilege with respect to 85 out of the 100 sample documents. He determined that the privilege had not been properly claimed as to the remaining 15 documents. These fell into three categories: (1) documents that are neither dated nor identified by author or recipient; (2) documents that postdate the notice of deficiency; and (3) documents that are of a type routinely prepared in the course of an IRS examination or that otherwise contain no "deliberative" information. In consideration of the foregoing, it is

ORDERED that petitioner's Motion to Compel Production of Documents, filed March 19, 2014, is granted to the following extent:

(2) Respondent shall on or before September 15, 2014, produce to counsel for petitioner documents previously withheld under a claim of deliberative process privilege that are substantially similar to the documents that Judge Carluzzo determined to be unprotected, namely: documents that are neither dated nor identified by author or recipient; documents that postdate the notice of deficiency; and documents that are of a type routinely prepared in the course of an IRS examination or that otherwise contain no "deliberative" information. It is further

ORDERED that petitioner's Motion to Compel Production of Documents, filed March 19, 2014, is denied in all other respects.