A disclosure is defined as making known to any person, in any manner, a return or return information.

A return includes any tax return, information return, declaration of estimated tax, claim for refund, schedule, attachment, amendment or supplement, that is required to be filed or is filed by, or on behalf of, a taxpayer.

Return information includes, but is not limited to:

A disclosure of return information is authorized if there is a statutory exception to the general rule of confidentiality. For example, under the IRC 6103, information can be given to the taxpayer or the taxpayer may consent to the disclosure of his or her return or return information to a third party. Also, IRS employees may share return information among themselves where the employees have a "need to know" to perform their tax administration duties.

To avoid unauthorized disclosures of return information, immediately identify the taxpayer or his/her authorized representative when answering telephone inquiries or initiating telephone contacts involving discussion of returns or return information. The risk of unauthorized disclosure is greatest when employees, using Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), Desktop Integration (DI), Automated Collection System (ACS), and Automated Underreporter Project (AUR), initiate telephone contacts or answer telephone inquiries.

When you provide tax information to another employee, be sure the employee has a "need to know" for a tax administration purpose. If you are not sure, ask your manager.

You may use the Electronic Accounts Resolution Guide (e-ARG), Taxpayer Authorization Section, when providing account information.

An unauthorized disclosure occurs when an IRS employee discloses a return or return information to someone who is not authorized to receive the information.

If you suspect that an IRS employee has made a knowing or negligent disclosure of a return or return information, report it directly to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 1-800-366-4484.

If you realize you have unintentionally disclosed return or return information to an unauthorized party, immediately report it to your manager using Form 10848, Report of Inadvertent Disclosure of Tax or Privacy Act Information. Your manager will forward the second part of the form, which does not include your name or other identifying details, to the appropriate Disclosure Officer. For further information on reporting unauthorized disclosures, see IRM 11.3.38.6, Reporting Unauthorized Accesses or Disclosures.

If you receive a telephone call from a taxpayer who has received IRS mail belonging to another taxpayer, follow the guidelines below:

Never leave taxpayer information on a terminal that can be seen by employees who may be unauthorized to see the information.

For purposes of identification and to prevent unauthorized disclosures of tax information, you must know with whom you are speaking and the purpose of the call/contact. It may be necessary to ask the caller or visitor if he or she is an individual (IMF) taxpayer (primary or secondary), a business (BMF) taxpayer (sole proprietor, partner, or corporate officer), or an authorized third party.

If you can assist the caller/taxpayer, go to the authentication probes shown in paragraph (4) below. If the caller is an authorized third party, do not proceed, but go to IRM 21.1.3.3, Third Party (POA/TIA/F706) Authentication. Follow the authentication procedures outlined in IRM 21.1.3.3.

If you cannot assist the caller, transfer the call to the appropriate application, using the TTG (Telephone Transfer Guide). Do not proceed with authentication probes.

Required authentication probes:

If the IRS did not issue a notice to the taxpayer, but the taxpayer requests additional information as outlined in statements (a), (b), and (c) below, more research is needed to prevent unauthorized disclosure. You must verify other information from IDRS and you must follow the procedures outlined in IRM 21.1.3.2.4, Additional Taxpayer Authentication.

For first time filers, if the return is not completely processed, you can verify:

For refund inquiries from Electronic Return Originators (EROs), Transmitters, or Intermediate Service Providers (ISPs), see IRM 21.1.3.6, Form 8453, U.S. Individual Income Tax Declaration for an IRS e-file Returnand Form 8453-OL,U.S. Individual Income Tax Declaration for an IRS e-file Online Return.

To validate a caller's/visitor's information (e.g., name and TIN) prior to providing any tax account information, you must research one or more of the following Corporate Files on Line (CFOL) or Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS) Command Codes (CCs). Generally, you will start your search with CC INOLE.

After satisfactory verification, provide the information requested.

See IRM 11.3.2,Disclosure to Persons with a Material Interest, for information on authorized recipients of return information.

For instructions on answering Congressional inquiries, see IRM 21.1.3.18, Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) Guidelines. For additional instructions on disclosure to designees and practitioners, see IRM 11.3.3, Disclosure to Designees and Practitioners.

You must authenticate a caller (using CC NAMEI) who has elected/defaulted to a Customer Service Representative (CSR) via the Integrated Customer Communications Environment (ICCE) (formerly known as Telephone Routing Interactive System (TRIS), authentication is required even if the caller has passed the Identification and Authentication (I&A) probes for the ICCE call.

For disclosure authentication related to ITIN calls, refer to IRM 3.21.263.2.3, ITIN Disclosure Guidelines.

For other conditions in which additional authentication is warranted, using the list below, verify two or more additional items from the taxpayer's return or account:

IMF taxpayers may designate a "Third Party Designee" (Check Box) on all paper and e-fileForm 1040 Series returns, with the exception of Amended Income Tax Returns. The Third Party Designee may be anyone including a paid or unpaid return preparer, a family member or friend. The Designee may be a person who is not the preparer.

BMF taxpayers may designate a Third Party Designee on all BMF returns. All BMF returns contain either a Third Party Designee Section or a Paid Preparer Designee check-box.

Third Party Designee authority was originally limited to the specific tax form and period of the return, and was limited to issues involving processing of that specific return.

Effective January 2004 (for Tax Year 2003 and subsequent), Third Party Designee authority, while still limited to the specific year and return, was expanded to nearly the equivalent of the Form 8821,Tax Information Authorization. The Third Party Designee may discuss account related issues, but still may not discuss compliance issues (e.g., issues that are beyond return processing issues such as when the account is assigned to ACS, Examination (EXAM), AUR, etc.).

The "Third Party Designee" cannot represent the taxpayer before the IRS, unless he/she is a recognized representative and has a valid Power of Attorney (POA) from the taxpayer. "Representation" before the IRS is a specific authority granted only by the completion and filing of a Form 2848,Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative. The Third Party Designation does not allow a named designee to perform the tasks associated with "representation" and "practice before the IRS."

The designation expires one year after the due date of the return in question. Extensions of time to file a return do not extend the Third Party designation period. There are no exceptions or extensions to the expiration date of the Third Party designation period.

The taxpayer or the designee may revoke the designation before the expiration date by submitting a written statement of revocation. A Transaction Code (TC) 971, with Action Code (AC) 263 changes the Third Party Designee indicator to "0" indicating a revocation. See (9) below.

If the taxpayer authorizes a company/business as a Third Party Designee, the authorization applies to any employee of that business. (See paragraph (2) above for entering designee on return). On the other hand, if the taxpayer authorizes an individual as a Third Party Designee, the authorization does not authorize disclosures to other individuals associated with such individual, such as employees of such individual or members of such individual's staff.

A third party indicator/"check box" field is shown on TXMOD (IMF and BMF), IMFOLR, BMFOLR, RTVUE, and BRTVU. The field will show either:

The third party indicator on IMF is followed by:

The third party indicator on BMF is followed by:

To verify the caller as a Third Party Designee, research on TXMOD (IMF and BMF), IMFOL, BMFOL, or RTVUE or BRTVU for:

To verify the Third Party Designee's TIN, research using CC INOLE or ENMOD.

For self-selected PIN verification, the third party need only to orally verify the 5 digit self-selected PIN shown on TXMOD.

To verify a PTIN, research the PTIN through the Intranet Employee User Portal (EUP) and the PTIN e-services application.

If a caller states that his/her PTIN is lost, forgotten or never received, follow the guidelines outlined in IRM 3.21.262.5.6(3), Preparer Inquiries.

If there is no record of a Third Party Designee, no record of a POA/TIA/oral TIA, or no record of Oral Disclosure Consent (ODC), NO information may be provided.

IRS Regulation 26 CFR 301.6103(c)-1(c) authorizes the IRS to accept non-written requests or consents authorizing the disclosure of return information (to the extent considered necessary to comply with the taxpayer's request or consent) to third parties assisting taxpayers in resolving Federal tax related matters. In order to obtain a non-written consent, the IRS must:

There are currently two Oral Disclosure Consent options for the taxpayer. Each option is explained in paragraphs (3) and (14) below. Either oral disclosure consent must be given by the taxpayer, or the taxpayer's authorized representative who has been previously granted this authority (as shown on the POA to appoint other designees) . This additional authorization(s) is shown on the CAF representative's name file.

Oral Disclosure Consent may be recorded only from the taxpayer (or the taxpayer's authorized representative as in paragraph (1) above) who has open account issues or to whom some type of notice has been issued from IRS, as shown on IDRS.

Before recording an Oral Disclosure Consent onto IDRS and/or DI, ensure taxpayer wants IRS to have a continuing dialog with the designated third party until the tax matter is resolved. Inform the taxpayer that all relevant tax return information may be disclosed to the authorized third party in order to resolve the tax issue.

Do record an Oral Disclosure Consent on IDRS and/or DI for each tax module under consideration.

Using CC ACTON and the following format, record the history items on each tax module (TXMOD):

Since there is no limitation of space on DI, record the history on DI as a narrative and list:

The history items are subsequently used to authenticate the third party. See IRM 21.1.3.3(9), Third Party (POA/TIA/ Form 706) Authentication.

Use additional history items as needed. (The current date is systemically entered when the history item is input).

Oral Disclosure Consent expires after the account issue(s) is closed; i.e., the module no longer meets IDRS retention criteria.

Regulations do not allow for the appointment of a representative using Oral Disclosure Consent. To appoint a representative, a Form 2848 must still be submitted in writing.

All updates/changes (revoke/add/replace/delete) to Oral Disclosure Consent are input with additional History items. The latest History item designee is the valid designee.

As a policy, a taxpayer cannot use Oral Disclosure Consent to request the IRS to systemically issue and mail account transcripts and/or copies of notices, letters, or returns to an authorized third party. However, if at the time the authorized third party contacts you regarding the account issue in question and requests such information, you may mail copies of such information related to the account in question to the third party, or to the taxpayer at the taxpayer's address of record.

All requests for non-tax matter information (e.g., requests for income verification for student loans, mortgage loans, etc.) must be submitted in writing, generally on Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, which is processed by the Return and Income Verification Services (RAIVS) functional area.

Oral TIA (Paper-less Form 8821) requests are processed/established onto the CAF database by the centralized CAF Units. CSRs must transfer Oral TIA calls to the appropriate CAF Unit. See IRM 21.3.7.14.3, Oral Tax Information Authorization, (OTIA) Processing, for transfer procedures.

Form 8821(TIA) (both paper and paper-less) does allow the appointee to contact IRS by telephone and to receive notices and transcripts.

Form 8821(TIA) (both paper and paper-less) do not allow the appointee to receive refunds for the taxpayer, nor to advocate for the taxpayer.

In order to request an oral TIA– Form 8821, the taxpayer must have the assigned CAF number of the third party. If not, the Form 8821 must be submitted in writing.

A Form 8821 authorization (paper or paper-less) is updated with the submission of, or request for, a new Form 8821.