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New Procedures Allow Electronic Doc Clearance, Digital Signatures

APR. 1, 2020

CC-2020-005

DATED APR. 1, 2020
DOCUMENT ATTRIBUTES
  • Institutional Authors
    Internal Revenue Service
  • Subject Area/Tax Topics
  • Jurisdictions
  • Tax Analysts Document Number
    2020-12469
  • Tax Analysts Electronic Citation
    2020 TNTF 64-38
    2020 TPR 14-21
Citations: CC-2020-005
[Editor's Note:

For the entire notice, including an exhibit, see the PDF version.

]

Date: April 1, 2020

Subject:
Procedures Related to Electronic Clearance and Digital Signatures
for Office of Chief Counsel Documents and Regulations

Cancel Date:
Until Further Notice

This notice announces changes to procedures for clearing and signing Office of Chief Counsel documents and regulations.

Electronic Clearance of Office of Chief Counsel Documents

Effective immediately, any Office of Chief Counsel document may be cleared electronically. Where a physical document or file previously would have been used to clear a document, the same document may be submitted to the approving official electronically via email. The subject line of the email should reflect that a document is being submitted for clearance. The file name of the document being cleared should indicate the type of document being cleared, the subject (e.g., CASE-MIS number and title), and the date of the draft document. If comments are provided on or revisions are made to the document, the file name of the document that is returned to the drafting attorney should reflect who made the comments or revisions and the date of the comments or revisions.

Official agency records for documents will continue to be maintained in paper form in accordance with agency recordkeeping requirements, unless otherwise provided for in the Chief Counsel Record Control Schedules. See Document 12990, Record Control Schedules, and CCDM Part 30.9. Compliance with this requirement will necessitate printing documents that have been digitally signed and adding them to the official agency record before the file is closed. All paper files still must be maintained in accordance with the requirements in CCDM Part 30.9, which include printing all significant drafts.

Specific Information for Electronic Clearance of Regulations and Internal Revenue Bulletin Guidance

Documents that may be cleared electronically include regulations and other guidance published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB). Regulations or IRB guidance should be circulated for clearance in an email that contains, as attachments, all of the documents that would have been included in a physical clearance folder. See CCDM 32.1.6.8.1. and CCDM 32.2.7.2. If those reviewing the document provide comments or make revisions, the file name for the document that is returned to the drafting attorney should reflect who made the comments or revisions and the date of the comments or revisions. Once those reviewing the document are ready to clear it, they should reply to the clearance email stating their approval. The drafting attorney then should type the name of the reviewer, the reviewer's office, and the date of approval into the pink clearance sheet or the Background Information Note (BIN) after each approval is received. Alternatively, the pink clearance sheet or the BIN may be digitally signed to document approval.

Use of Digital Signatures on Office of Chief Counsel Documents

Effective immediately, digital signatures may be used to sign any Office of Chief Counsel document, including but not limited to: published guidance, Chief Counsel legal advice, letters to the Department of Justice, Action on Decisions (AODs), and Private Letter Rulings (PLRs). Methods of digital signatures include:

  • Converting a document to a PDF and adding a signature in Adobe Acrobat;

  • Scanning an image of a signature and adding to the document; or

  • Adding "/s/" and the person's name to the text of the document and then locking the document as provided in Exhibit 1.

Procedure to Obtain Digital Signatures on Regulations

Regulations may be signed digitally in accordance with Federal Register requirements, which are attached as Exhibit 1. The Office of the Federal Register requires that documents submitted for publication in the Federal Register be signed in Microsoft Word by adding an invisible digital signature. This process prevents the text of the document from being revised after the invisible digital signature is applied. Consequently, signing the document must be the last act performed before the document is submitted to the Federal Register for publication.

A document is ready for digital signature once the regulation has been approved for publication by the Office of Chief Counsel, the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Services and Enforcement (DCSE), and the Treasury Department and prepared for submission by the assigned Federal Register Liaison (FRL) in the Publications and Regulations Branch of the Legal Processing Division of Procedure and Administration. At that point, no more changes can be made to the document.

To digitally sign a Microsoft Word document, the following steps must be performed in the following order:

1. After the document is approved by Treasury, the document, pink clearance sheet, and record of Treasury approval is e-mailed by the Associate Office to the assigned FRL to prepare the document for signature.

2. After preparing the document for signature, the FRL emails the final document to the assigned attorneys in the Associate Office that is responsible for the regulation.

3. The Associate Office emails the document to the Senior Advisor to the DCSE. The title of the e-mail must begin with the following: “FOR ELECTRONIC APPROVAL/DIGITAL SIGNATURE.” The Senior Advisor to the DCSE will facilitate obtaining the digital signature of the DCSE or the person acting in that capacity. The document must be digitally signed in accordance with the Federal Register requirements. The Federal Register steps for digitally signing documents for submission to Office of Federal Register are attached as Exhibit 1.

4. The Senior Advisor to the DCSE returns the digitally signed regulation to the Associate Office responsible for the regulation.

5. For Treasury Decisions only, the Associate Office emails the document that was digitally signed by the DCSE to the Attorney-Advisor in the Treasury Department who is responsible for the regulation. The Attorney-Advisor obtains the digital signature of the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, or the person acting in that capacity, in accordance with Exhibit 1. The Attorney-Advisor then emails the document signed by the Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy (and the DCSE) back to the responsible Associate Office.

6. The Associate Office emails the final digitally signed document to the assigned FRL, who will transmit the document to the Federal Register.

If you have any questions about these procedures, please contact Emily M. Lesniak at Emily.M.Lesniak@irscounsel.treas.gov or 202-317-5409 in the Office of the Associate Chief Counsel (Procedure & Administration).

Kathryn A. Zuba
Associate Chief Counsel
(Procedure & Administration) 

DOCUMENT ATTRIBUTES
  • Institutional Authors
    Internal Revenue Service
  • Subject Area/Tax Topics
  • Jurisdictions
  • Tax Analysts Document Number
    2020-12469
  • Tax Analysts Electronic Citation
    2020 TNTF 64-38
    2020 TPR 14-21
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