FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT ANNUAL REPORT 

 INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE 

 Fiscal Year 2007 

 October 1, 2006 through September 30, 2007 

I. Basic Information Regarding the Report 

 A. Questions concerning this report may be directed to: 

 

 Chief, Office of Disclosure 

 Internal Revenue Service 

 1111 Constitution Avenue, N.W. 

 Washington, DC 20224 

 SE:S:CLD:GLD:D 

 B. This report is available on the internet 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 

internet at: IRS Disclosure Offices. 

 Time Ranges of Responses 

 B. Response times are from 0 to 2554 days, with an average response time of 48 

calendar 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 might 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. 

IV. Supporting Statutes Used with Exemption (b) (3) 

A.1. 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 
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own return information if the release would seriously impair 

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

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

Generally used to withhold Currency Transaction Reports. 

26 U.S.C. 6105 Confidentiality of information arising under treaty obligations. 

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

Secrecy: regulates matters occurring before the Grand Jury. Used 

to withhold records used in Grand Jury proceedings. 

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. 

41 U.S.C. 253(b) Protects the solicitations of unsuccessful bidders in a competitive 

proposal. This provision is used to withhold the unsuccessful 

bidder’s contract proposal as well as information in the winning 

solicitation that was not incorporated into the contract. 

A.2. 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); Gillin v. 

IRS, No. 90-31 (D.N.H. Apr. 15, 1991), aff’d, 980 F.2d 819 (1st

Cir. 1992); Casa Investors, Ltd. v. Gibbs, No. 88-2485, 1990 WL 

180703 (D.D.C. Oct. 11, 1990) 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). 

26 U.S.C. 6105 Tax Analysts v. IRS, No. 99-0372, 2002 WL 1791162 (D.D.C. 

Aug. 6, 2002) 
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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). 

18 U.S.C. 701 Not litigated. 

41 U.S.C. 253(b) Hornbostel v. Dept of Interior, No.02-0523, 2003 WL 23303294 

(D.D.C., 2003) 
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V. Initial FOIA/PA Access Requests

A. Number of initial requests: 

1. Requests Pending as of 10/01/06 2,070 

2. Requests Received during FY 2007 17,894 

3. Requests Processed during FY 2007 18,289 

4. Requests Pending as of 09/30/07 1,675 

B. Disposition of initial requests: 

1. Total Grants 6,844 

2. Partial Grants 2,289 

3. Total Denials 242 

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

once per case): 

Exemption Use Exemption Use Exemption Use 

(b)(1) 0 (b)(6) 493 (b)(7)(E) 939 

(b)(2) 83 (b)(7)(A) 451 (b)(7)(F) 7 

(b)(3) 1,960 (b)(7)(B) 4 (b)(8) 0 

(b)(4) 41 (b)(7)(C) 771 (b)(9) 0 

(b)(5) 489 (b)(7)(D) 49 
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4. Other reasons for non-disclosure of requested information: 

Total of Others (as categorized below) 8,914 

No Records 3,393 

Referrals 195 

Requests Withdrawn 253 

Not a proper FOIA request for some other reason 4,098 

Misc. other reasons for not processing a request* 975 

*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 2007 239 

2. Processed during FY 2007 267 

B. Disposition of appeals. 

1. Completely upheld 247 

2. Partially reversed 18 

3. Completely reversed 2 
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3.a. 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) 26 (b)(7)(E) 40 

(b)(2) 12 (b)(7)(A) 37 (b)(7)(F) 0 

(b)(3) 86 (b)(7)(B) 4 (b)(8) 0 

(b)(4) 5 (b)(7)(C) 42 (b)(9) 0 

(b)(5) 57 (b)(7)(D) 8 

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

Total of Others (as categorized below) 0 

a. No Records 

b. Referrals 

c. Withdrawn 

d. Fee-related 

e. Records not reasonably described 

f. Treated as a non-appeal 

g. Not an agency record 

h. Duplicate request 

i. Other (litigation due to failure to respond) 
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VII. Compliance with Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests

1. Median time for processing requests: 

 

Simple Requests 

a. Number of requests processed 0 

b. Median number of days to process N/A 

Complex Requests 

a. Number of requests processed 18,289 

b. Median number of days to process 27 

Expedited Requests 

a. Number of requests processed 0 

b. Median number of days to process N/A 

2. Status of pending requests (as of September 30, 2007): 

Number of requests pending 1,675 

Median age of pending cases 18 

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

IX. Costs/FOIA Staffing

A.1. Staffing levels, given in number of positions in agency: 

Full-time FOIA personnel 6 

Personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA duties 

(composite total, in work years) 66 

Total personnel (in composite work years) 72 
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A.2. Total costs (including all staff and resources): 

FOIA processing (including appeals) $ 8,792,758 

Litigation related activities (estimated) 378,772 

Total Costs $ 9,171,530 

X. Fees 

A. Total fees collected by the agency during FY 2007 $ 190,752 

B. Percentage of total costs 2.08% 

XI. FOIA Regulations. N/A 

 

XI. Report on FOIA Executive Order Implementation 

A. Description of supplement/modification of agency improvement plan if applicable: 

N/A 

B. Report on agency implementation of its plan, including its performance in meeting 

milestones, with respect to each improvement area: 

1. The IRS is an active participant at FOIA Council meetings. 

2. The IRS has submitted monthly FOIA Performance Measures Reports. 

3. The IRS continually reviews its oldest FOIA cases. 

4. Since the adoption of the Department of the Treasury FOIA Improvement Plan, 

the IRS has emphasized processing of backlog cases with the result that the 

backlog inventory was 605 requests as of September 30, 2007, a decrease of 

43% from initial IRS backlog baseline of 1054. This represents a 33% 

reduction over and above the Treasury 10% improvement goal for FY2007. 

C. Identification and discussion of any deficiency in meeting plan milestones, if 

applicable: N/A 

D. Additional narrative statement regarding other executive order related activities – 

optional 

1. The open FOIA ending inventory on September 30, 2007, reflects a 19% 

reduction from the ending inventory reported on September 30, 2006. 

2. The IRS piloted an automated FOIA case processing system in two Disclosure 

Offices during FY2007 and is planning future implementation. The new system 

utilizes document imaging and centralized receipt of all FOIA/PA requests to 

create fully electronic case files and online document redaction tools. 
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E. Concise descriptions of FOIA exemptions: 

 The majority of FOIA requests received by the IRS are for access to individual or 

business tax records. Records are released when proper authority for access to tax 

records is received and denied when it is not. Therefore, the primary exemption 

cited by the IRS is (b)(3) in conjunction with 26 U.S.C. 6103, to withhold tax 

records. These records are generally part of law enforcement files also subject to 

exemption (b)(7). 

 

Exemption Use Exemption Use Exemption Use 

(b)(1) 0 (b)(6) 493 (b)(7)(E) 939 

(b)(2) 83 (b)(7)(A) 451 (b)(7)(F) 7 

(b)(3) 1,960 (b)(7)(B) 4 (b)(8) 0 

(b)(4) 41 (b)(7)(C) 771 (b)(9) 0 

(b)(5) 489 (b)(7)(D) 49 

F. Additional Stats: 

1. Time range of requests pending, by date of request (or, where applicable, by 

date of referral from another agency): 

The range of open cases was from 2 days to 2,584 days. The dates of these 

requests range from October 2, 2000 to September 28, 2007. 

2. Time range of consultations pending with other agencies, by date of initial 

interagency communication: N/A 

G. Improvement Plan attached: N/A