Court Opinion

ID: 9476180
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:49:17.476938+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:10.034908
License: Public Domain

WELLFORD, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the decision of Judge Norris, and would add an additional basis for reversing the district court.
In First Western Government Securities, Inc. v. United States, 796 F.2d 356, 357 (10th Cir.1986) the investors of the abusive tax shelter were under investigation by the IRS when they received a revenue agent report containing alleged return information of First Western Government Securities, Inc. The court held 26 U.S.C. § 6103(h)(4)(C) applicable because “the information is directly related to a transactional relationship between the investors and plaintiffs and directly affected the resolution of an issue in the proceeding, that being the disallowance of deductions related to plaintiffs’ tax shelters.” Id. at 360. The court also noted that the “term ‘tax administration’ is to be interpreted broadly.” Id. I believe the rationale of First Western is applicable in this situation even if the investors in Mid-South may not themselves have been under investigation when they received the prefiling notification letter. Section 6103 “cannot be read to provide a general right of privacy to anyone called upon to submit information to the IRS,” particularly under the circumstances of the IRS investigation in this case. Id. at 359.
The information here directly relates to a “transactional relationship” between Mid-South Music and the recipients of the letter in question.
*541I agree that the judgment of the district court must be reversed.