Opinion ID: 778068
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: TAs to Program Managers

Text: 38 IRS appeals the District Court's decision with regard to three of the five TAs to program managers that the court ordered released. IRS argues that these three TAs should have been withheld pursuant to the deliberative process privilege of Exemption 5. IRS does not appeal the release of the other two TAs to program managers. Br. for Appellee/Cross-Appellant at 57 n.5 (stating that IRS does not appeal the District Court's ruling with respect to TAs numbered TR-45-1383-93 and TR-45-1974-93). The three TAs on appeal are issued to program managers within the national office of IRS. 39 The deliberative process privilege protects confidential intra-agency advisory opinions ... disclosure of which would be injurious to the consultative functions of government. Sears, 421 U.S. at 149, 95 S.Ct. at 1516 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). It encompasses documents reflecting advisory opinions, recommendations, and deliberations comprising part of a process by which governmental decisions and policies are formulated, as well as other subjective documents that reflect the personal opinions of the writer prior to the agency's adoption of a policy. TWRF, 646 F.2d at 677 (citing Sears, 421 U.S. at 150, 95 S.Ct. at 1516). It does not, however, apply to final statements of agency policy or to statements that explain actions that an agency has taken. Id. In other words, it protects predecisional communications reflecting an agency's internal deliberations, but not communications that explain a decision that has already been made. Sears, 421 U.S. at 151-52, 95 S.Ct. at 1516-17. In order to determine whether the District Court applied these principles correctly, we have reviewed the three disputed TAs in camera, along with the five that the court ordered withheld and the two not appealed, for comparative purposes. 40 The District Court grouped the five TAs it ordered released into two categories. First, the court ordered the IRS to release TAs that concerned specific taxpayers or classes of taxpayers. These included the following TAs: TR-45-2233-93 (presenting OCC's legal analysis regarding a particular class of taxpayers engaged in specified activities); TR-45-1383-93 (not appealed) (presenting OCC's legal analysis and computations regarding certain transactions of a particular taxpayer); TR-45-1974-93 (not appealed) (presenting OCC's legal analysis and conclusion regarding how the program manager should apply a certain statutory provision to a particular taxpayer); and TR-45-2473-93 (presenting OCC's conclusion as to whether a particular taxpayer qualified for a specified exemption). Second, the District Court ordered the IRS to release a TA that addressed the interpretation of the internal revenue laws generally: TR-45-2820-92 (answering a question concerning whether taxpayers at large may use a particular procedure). 41 The District Court correctly likened these five TAs to the FSAs at issue in Tax Analysts, 117 F.3d 607. Like FSAs, TAs are issued by OCC and sent to IRS personnel in response to official queries. FSAs were issued to field attorneys, revenue agents, and appeals officers, while TAs are issued to program managers. Tax Analysts, 117 F.3d at 609. FSAs usually dealt with particular taxpayers, as do four of the TAs in this case. Id. The TA concerning general procedures reflects OCC's considered position on a precise issue. FSAs and these TAs both contain legal analysis, conclusions, and advice. Id. It is therefore unsurprising that, as the District Court found, IRS conceded that taxpayer-specific TAs to program managers are all but identical to FSAs. Mem. Op. II at 22; Def. Statement of Genuine Issues in Opp. to Pl.'s Statement of Material Facts ¶ 3.12 (stating that IRS did not object to Tax Analysts' statement that, in many cases, the only difference between FSAs and taxpayer-specific TAs is the originating office), reprinted at Joint Appendix 383, 344. 42 The five TAs that the District Court ordered withheld, while not before us on appeal, nevertheless provide a useful contrast and an illustration of the kinds of documents that truly reflect a debate among equally-positioned decisionmakers. For example, in TR-955-93, OCC comments on a draft tax form and instructions for filling out another form. The TA uses markedly different language from that found in the TAs that the District Court ordered released, repeatedly prefacing comments with such phrases as We believe and We suggest and advising the recipient that the form should reflect a certain principle. Similarly, in TR-45-2164-93, OCC proposed solutions to a potential legal problem. In TR-45-307-93, OCC commented on a legislative proposal, expressing legal concern[s] about some of its language. The tone of these TAs suggest that they were prepared merely to discuss the wisdom or merits of a particular agency policy, or recommend new agency policy, raising the possibility that their disclosure would mislead the public. Coastal States Gas Corp. v. Dep't of Energy, 617 F.2d 854, 869 (D.C.Cir.1980). By contrast, the TAs that the District Court ordered released use such language as It is the position of the Treasury Department that ... (TR-45-2233-93) and We conclude (TR-45-2473-93). The tone of these TAs indicates that they simply explain and apply established policy. Coastal States, 617 F.2d at 869. 43 IRS argues that while the disputed TAs to program managers may be the final word of OCC, they are issued to program officers who make the final decisions about their programs. IRS characterizes the TAs as part of a dialogue among equals, rather than pronouncements from senior officials to junior field agents. These arguments are unpersuasive. It is not necessary that the TAs reflect the final programmatic decisions of the program officers who request them. It is enough that they represent OCC's final legal position concerning the Internal Revenue Code, tax exemptions, and proper procedures. We reach this conclusion in reliance on the fact that the disputed TAs travel horizontally, from the OCC to program officers. By contrast, documents that represent the final legal position of the OCC and travel upward — for example, memoranda to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue advising him on legal issues — may still be part of the agency's deliberative process and thus fall within Exemption 5. See Coastal States, 617 F.2d at 868 (noting that a document from a subordinate to a superior official is more likely to be predecisional, and that this court recently identified as `a classic case of the deliberative process at work' a series of memoranda to the Assistant Secretary of the Army from the General Counsel in his department, recommending legal strategy in light of a particular controversy) (quoting Murphy v. Dep't of the Army, 613 F.2d 1151, 1154 (1979)). 44 Under the FOIA, working law must be disclosed whether or not those who use the working law make the final decisions about program implementation. See id. (holding that the disputed documents, whatever the formal powers of [the issuing officials] to issue binding interpretations of the regulations, in practice represent interpretations of established policy on which the agency relies in discharging its regulatory responsibilities and that they must be disclosed). Thus, the District Court correctly ordered the disputed three TAs released. 45 The distinction between deliberative TAs and TAs that represent the OCC's considered legal conclusions is not amenable to a categorical formula. It can turn on the subject matter of the TA, on its recipient, on its place in the decisionmaking process, and even on its tone. Nonetheless, after reviewing the ten TAs in camera, we are satisfied that the District Court committed no error in its judgment regarding these materials