FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT ANNUAL REPORT

INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE

Fiscal Year 2004

October 1, 2003 through September 30, 2004

I. Basic Information Regarding the Report 

A. Questions concerning this report may be directed to:

Director, Office of Disclosure

Internal Revenue Service

1111 Constitution Avenue, N,W.

Washington, DC 20224

SE:S:C&L:GLD:D

B. This report is available on the web at: http://www.irs.gov/foia/index.html

C. Copies of this report may be requested at the address provided in A. above.

II. How to Make a FOIA Request 

A. FOIA requests for IRS records may be sent to any IRS Disclosure Office. Addresses are 

listed in the IRS FOIA regulations at 26 C.F.R. 701.602 or are available on the web at: 

IRS Disclosure Offices.

Time Ranges of Responses 

B. Response times are from 1 to 1546 days, with an average response time of 30 days.

Why Some Requests are Not Granted 

C. The majority of the requests denied by the IRS are requests for confidential tax information 

being sought by individuals who are not authorized to receive it, or are requests related to 

tax investigations, the disclosure of which would seriously impair federal tax administration.

III. Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used in Report

A. Agency Specific None.

B. Basic Terms Please see consolidated Treasury Report.
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IV. Supporting Statutes Used with Exemption (b)(3) 

A. Listing and brief description of type of information withheld under each statute:

26 U.S.C. 6103 Confidentiality of Returns and Return Information: Prohibits the 

disclosure of (1) tax returns and return information of third party 

taxpayers (section 6103(a)); (2) the standards used for selection of 

returns for examination (section 6103(b)(2)); and (3) a requester’s own 

return information if the disclosure would seriously impair federal tax 

administration (section 6103(e)(7)). 

31 U.S.C. 5319 Bank Secrecy Act Records: Prohibits the disclosure of records; used to 

withhold Currency Transaction Reports.

26 U.S.C. 6105 Internal Revenue Code section 6105 states that tax convention 

information shall not be disclosed, except as specifically stated in 

 Internal Revenue Code section 6105(b).

Rule 6(e) Part of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure-Grand Jury Secrecy; 

used to withhold records on matters occurring before a Grand Jury.

18 U.S.C. 701 Official badges, identification cards. Prohibits the reproduction of 

official identification media. Used to withhold copies of IRS employee 

identification badges and pocket commissions.

5 U.S.C. 7114 Delineates the rights and duties of a labor organization which is the 

exclusive representative of the employees in the unit it represents.

B. Statement of whether a court has upheld the use of each statute:

26 U.S.C. 6103 Church of Scientology v. IRS, 484 U.S. 9 (1987); Aronson v. IRS,

973 F.2d 962 (1st Cir. 1992); Stebbins v. Sullivan, No. 90-5361, slip 

op. at 1 (D.C. Cir. July 22, 1992); Wishart v. Commissioner, C-97-

20614-SW (N.D. Cal., decided August 6, 1998); and others.

31 U.S.C. 5319 Small v. IRS, 820 F. Supp. 163 (D.N.J. 1992)

Rule 6(e) Fund for Constitutional Gov’t v. National Archives & Records 

Service, 656 F. 2nd 856, 867 (D.C. Cir. 1981); Walston v. U.S. 

Department of Justice, 799 F. Supp. 193, 195 (D.D.C. 1992).

18 U.S.C. 701 Not litigated.
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26 U.S.C. 6105 Tax Analysts v. IRS, No. 99-0372, 2002 WL 1791162 (D.D.C. Aug. 

6, 2002)

5 U.S.C. 7114 Dublin v. Dept. of the Treasury, 555 F. Supp. 408, 412 (N.D. Ga. 

1981), aff’d, 697 F.2d 1093 (unpublished table decision): NTEU v. 

OPM, No. 76-695, slip op at 49 D.D.C. July 9, 1979).

V. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests

A. Number of initial requests:

1. Requests Pending as of 10/01/03 4,096

2. Requests Received during FY 2004 51,423

3. Requests Processed during FY 2004 51,985

4. Requests Pending as of 09/30/04 3,534

B. Disposition of initial requests:

1. Total Grants 20,272

2. Partial Grants 2,710

3. Total Denials 430

3a. Number of times each FOIA exemption was used (counting each exemption once per 

case):

Exemption Use Exemption Use Exemption Use

(b)(1) 1 (b)(6) 486 (b)(7)(E) 1208

(b)(2) 126 (b)(7)(A) 600 (b)(7)(F) 13

(b)(3) 2586 (b)(7)(B) 0 (b)(8) 0 

(b)(4) 32 (b)(7)(C) 864 (b)(9) 0 

(b)(5) 525 (b)(7)(D) 91
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4. Other reasons for non-disclosure of requested information:

Total of Others (as categorized below) 28,573

No Records 15,404

Referrals 1,633

Request Withdrawn 350

Fee-related reason 0

Not a proper FOIA request for some other reason 8,229

Misc. other reasons for not processing a request* 2,957

*Closed without determination because an appeal was filed; the records had previously 

been provided to the requester; or, the requester had not paid the fee from a previous 

request.

VI. Appeal of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests

A. Number of appeals:

1. Received during FY 2004 288

2. Processed during FY 2004 239

B. Disposition of appeals.

1. Completely upheld 221

2. Partially reversed 16

3. Completely reversed 2
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3a. Number of times each FOIA exemption was used in a completely or partially upheld 

appeal case (counting each exemption once per case):

Exemption Use Exemption Use Exemption Use

(b)(1) 0 (b)(6) 15 (b)(7)(E) 2

(b)(2) 0 (b)(7)(A) 3 (b)(7)(F) 0

(b)(3) 25 (b)(7)(B) 0 (b)(8) 0

(b)(4) 0 (b)(7)(C) 5 (b)(9) 0

(b)(5) 14 (b)(7)(D) 1

4. Other reasons for non-disclosure during appeal process:

Total of Others (as categorized below) 174

a. No Records 72

b. Referrals 0

c. Withdrawn 2

d. Fee-related 1

e. Records not reasonably described 8

f. Treated as a non-appeal 58

g. Not an agency record 5

h. Duplicate request 2

i. Other (litigation due to failure to respond) 26

VII. Compliance with Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests

A. Median time for processing requests:

1. Simple Requests

a. Number of requests processed 0

b. Median number of days to process N/A
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2. Complex Requests

a. Number of requests processed 51,985

b. Median number of days to process 21

3. Expedited Requests

a. Number of request processed 0

b. Median number of days to process N/A

B. Status of pending requests (as of September 30, 2004):

Number of requests pending 3,534

Median age of pending cases 20

VIII. Comparison with Previous Year (Optional). Comparison not made.

IX. Costs/FOIA Staffing

A. Staffing levels, given in number of positions in agency:

Full-time FOIA personnel 12

Personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA duties 

(composite total, in work years) 92

Total personnel (in composite work years) 104

B. Total costs (including all staff and resources):

FOIA processing (including appeals) $10,973,734

Litigation related activities (estimated) $ 277,014

Total Costs $11,250,748
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X. Fees

Total fees collected by the agency during FY 2004 $ 163,762

Percentage of total costs 1.5%