Opinion ID: 517676
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: information in commissioner's possession

Text: 53 One of the specific elements which must be established under United States v. Powell, 379 U.S. 48, 57-58, 85 S.Ct. 248, 254-255, 13 L.Ed.2d 112 (1964) is that the information sought is not already within the Commissioner's possession. Dayton argues that the identities of the Boundary Waters employees are on file with the IRS. Dayton showed that it had filed the appropriate IRS Forms W-3, 8027 and copies of Forms W-2. The 8027 form would have reported the identities of the employees, as required by 26 C.F.R. 31-6053(a), and would presumably be indexed under Dayton's or Boundary Waters' name. Other records, however, were also sought. These would disclose sales and the hours worked. They were clearly needed for the success of the investigation. The identities of the employees would enable the IRS to locate their returns, but the other records would still be required in order to determine whether the returns were correct, and there is no claim that these other records are already in the Commissioner's possession.