Release number 201603030 of 2016-01-15

• Date: 15 January 2016
• Year: 2016
• Record Number: 201603030
• UILC Number: 7521.00-00

ID:

UILC:

CCA-12111250-15

7521.00-00

[Third Party Communication:

Date of Communication: Month DD, YYYY]

Number: 201603030

Release Date: 1/15/2016

From: -------------------

Sent: Friday, December 11, 2015 12:50 PM

To: ----------------------

Cc: -----------------

Bcc:

Subject: Employee Audits

-------,

You asked whether employees must attend the initial interview in an employee tax

audit. The concern is that some employees, using the provisions of section 7521(c) are

choosing not to appear at the initial interview and are instead sending a representative

or, in some cases, not appearing at all. You asked us to consider whether section

7521(d), which states that the provisions of section 7521 do not apply to “investigations

relating to the integrity of any officer or employee of the IRS,” would allow the Service to

require the employee to be present at the initial interview. As discussed below, where

an employee audit is an investigation relating to the integrity of that employee, the

employee does not have the right to send his or her representative to the interview

without accompanying them. Moreover, we believe the Service may take the position

that employee investigations of employees in auditable positions are investigations

relating to integrity, whereas investigations of employee in non-auditable positions are

not necessarily investigations relating to integrity. However, we caution that nothing in

section 7521 allows the Service to compel the employee’s cooperation.

Section 7521(a) describes the type of interviews to which section 7521 applies, and

defines these as in person interviews between any officer or employee of the IRS and

any taxpayer “relating to the determination or collection of any tax[.]” It provides certain

rights which taxpayers may assert in connection with these interviews. Section 7521(c),

in relevant part, allows a taxpayer to be represented by an authorized representative in

any interview described in subsection (a), and prevents the Service from requiring the

taxpayer to attend interviews along with that representative. Essentially, the taxpayer

may send their representative in their place. Section 7521(d) provides that section 7521

“shall not apply to criminal investigations or investigations relating to the integrity of any

officer or employee of the Internal Revenue service.

Statutes should be construed “so as to avoid rendering superfluous” any statutory

language. Astoria Federal Savings & Loan Ass’n v. Solamino, 501 U.S. 104, 112

(1991). The language of section 7521(d) does not provide an exception for every

investigation of every IRS employee. Instead, Congress limited this exception to