The Fair Credit Reporting Act, an amendment to the Consumer Credit Protection Act, went into effect on April 24, 1971. The Act defines those individuals and organizations who are entitled to receive consumer credit information. The Act further defines the nature and extent of the information which can be given out by these consumer reporting agencies.

The Service may obtain without a summons, court order, or written permission of the taxpayer, full credit reports from credit bureaus on IMF (Individual Master File) BAL DUEs (Balance Due Accounts) and BMF (Business Master File) BAL DUEs on sole proprietors, where the Service has:

The Service may obtain without a summons, court order or written permission of the taxpayer, full credit reports from credit bureaus on individual partners for partnership BMF BAL DUEs where the partner is liable for the tax under state law.

The Service may obtain without a summons, court order, or written permission of the taxpayer, full credit reports from credit bureaus on a fiduciary for BAL DUEs of a trust, where the Service has an assessment lien under IRC 6321 against the individual fiduciary.

The Service may obtain a summary or short credit reports of identifying information on any open case without permission of the taxpayer. This identifying information is limited to a consumer's name, address, former address, and places of present and former employment.

In instances where both a BAL DUE and DEL RET exist for the same taxpayer, a full credit report may be obtained without a summons, court order, or written permission of the taxpayer, but the information may only be used for the BAL DUE. The full report information may not be used as the basis for a referral to Examination or Criminal Investigation. Nor may the full report information be used as the basis for an assessment under IRC 6020(b) or the Substitute for Return Program (SFR). To use a full credit report as a basis for a referral to the Examination or Criminal Investigation or as a basis for an assessment, a summons must be issued per IRC 7609.

Per IRC 6103(k)(6), disclosure of taxpayer return information (i.e name, address, and Taxpayer Identification Number) to obtain a full credit report should be analyzed on a case by case basis, as follows:

Credit report information obtained without a summons, court order, or written permission of the taxpayer, may not be disclosed to Criminal Investigation or Examination, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), or any other government agency. All information collected by the IRS with regard to collecting tax liability is protected by IRC 6103; any disclosure must meet IRC 6103 standards. A full credit report or information from a credit report is available to the taxpayer who is the subject of the report, unless a determination is made that its disclosure would seriously impair Federal tax administration under IRC 6103(e)(7), or in the context of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, that its disclosure could reasonably be expected to interfere with on-going law enforcement proceedings under FOIA.

Instances where a full credit report has been erroneously obtained on a non-BAL DUE case or has been obtained on the wrong taxpayer, the credit bureau should be notified immediately so the inquiry may be deleted from the taxpayer's credit history. IRS locations using credit reports should establish procedures for making such notifications. In general, a memorandum should be sent to the credit bureau advising of the inappropriate access.

Service employees may not access credit reports on themselves, friends, relatives, other employees, or any person for which there is not an open BAL DUE or DEL RET.

Unauthorized access to credit bureau data is a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Act provides both civil and criminal penalties for obtaining information under false pretenses and for unauthorized disclosure by officers and employees of the consumer reporting agencies. All violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act must be reported to TIGTA.

Full credit reports on IMF and BMF DEL RETs, other than those described in 5.1.18.5 above or other investigations, may be secured provided a notice of the summons is given to the taxpayer per IRC 7609(a). See IRM 25.5.4, Examination of Books and Witnesses, for further information on IRC 7609 summons.

If a request for a full credit report includes, or may include, an inquiry into the amount of the taxpayer's liability for any period, whether or not the taxpayer has filed a return for any period, summons per (12) above.

Always retain a copy of the summons and full credit report with the case files involved in (12) and (13), so management can verify the appropriateness of using this information.

There are instances when retention of the full credit report in the closed case file is needed by the group manager, Technical & Insolvency, Quality Review, and/or Appeals. However, if a decision is made not to retain the credit report, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 requires that persons who dispose of credit information take reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to or use of credit information in connection with its disposal. Therefore, after all reviews have been completed, the case is closed and the credit report is no longer needed, employees should remove the credit report from the case file and properly dispose of it by shredding.

No attempt should be made to recover from taxpayers the fees for credit reports since:

The Fair Credit Reporting Act was intended to apply only to reports relating to a consumer's eligibility for personal credit or commercial benefits as a consumer and not to the consumer's business transactions. Accordingly, the Act does not restrict the availability of credit reports of corporations, partnerships or trusts. The credit reports of individual corporate officers, partners or fiduciaries, however, could only be obtained without a summons if the criteria discussed in IRM 5.1.18.5.1 were met.

Access to credit information, other than through the ADR, must be restricted and requests need to be controlled. Only Smart.Alx Credit Web Browser should be used by the Service to access credit reports. This credit browser was developed by IQue Inc., with input from Headquarters, with the specific purpose of meeting our security needs. The use of this credit browser and all of its security features is required by all locations which access credit reports. Local Coordinators must insure all of the security and credit bureau tracking procedures (including requests from other functions) are followed. Credit Browser security features are as follows:

Occasionally, there will be a need to secure a credit report where there is a mismatch between the report type and the assessment code. In these cases a bypass is needed.

A joint report should never be requested even when there is an assessment for both taxpayers. Request a separate report for each taxpayer.

Only the manager is authorized to secure a credit report using the VBO. The Credit Bureau Coordinators must ensure that none of the employees have been profiled in Setup to have access to this feature. Credit Bureau security can be compromised if too many users have access to this option.

To use the VBO, the manager must have written documentation reflecting an open case for a summary report and evidence that an assessment exists for a full credit report. An IDRS print, ACS print, or an ICS Balance Module Screen will suffice.

The manager must date and initial the document with his/her approval.

Managerial approval is required prior to bypassing the credit browser mismatch error to secure a summary or full credit report.

All bypass requests, whether approved or declined must be sent to your Credit Bureau Coordinator for association with the Validation Bypass Reports. The coordinator must retain these reports with the required backup documentation for six years.

A record must be maintained of any unauthorized or accidental credit bureau requests and the actions taken to correct their occurrence. A memorandum should be sent to the credit bureau indicating that the report was secured in error and requesting that the IRS inquiry be deleted from the taxpayer's report.

A separate memorandum should be provided to management identifying the cause for the inappropriate access and any recommended actions to prevent future occurrence. The memorandum will be sent to the Area Director and a separate memorandum will be sent to the Territory Manager with more detailed information concerning the inappropriate access.

The Credit Bureau Coordinator must ensure that vendor billings are reconciled against the Client Report information monthly.

In addition to the billing reconciliation procedure, a quarterly security review is required. The quarterly security reviews should include matching these requests against the Smart.Alx Client Report List . Cases not matched must be resolved. A full review of the Validation Bypass and Security Violation reports must also be done. A written result of each quarterly security review should be maintained for one year.

Copies of the quarterly security reviews should be directed to the Chief, Automated Collection System in Customer Accounts Sites or the Compliance Area Director.

If credit reports are secured in service center campuses other than through ADR, outside of the Customer Accounts Sites, copies should be directed to the appropriate management official.

The internal sources are:

The external sources are:

The Taxpayer Information File (TIF) can hold a maximum of nine levy sources. The type of source is identified by a literal. This literal appears on the far right of the levy source screen.

The TIF levy sources have the following literals and priority:

The levy sources are reprioritized when a new levy source is added to the TIF.

Sometimes a levy recipient with multiple locations wants all levies sent to one address. This information can be loaded into the centralized address subroutine of CARS. This processing will supply the proper centralized address when levy sources are initially created and uploaded to IDRS.

Information regarding available asset locator tools can be found in IRM 1.4.5.3 Corporate Tax Administration Tools.

Information regarding Corporate Tax and Legal Research Services can be found in IRM 1.4.5.2 Corporate Tax Administration Tools.