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Petitioner contends that he is entitled to make an audio
recording of his section 6330 hearing before the Appeals Office
because the specific requirements of section 7521(a)(1) have been
satisfied. He stresses that the meeting is presided over by an
officer or employee of the IRS; that the meeting is “in person”;
that the meeting involves the collection of tax; that he gave
advance notice of his intent to record; and he brought his own
recording equipment for that purpose.5
To the contrary, respondent contends that petitioner has no
statutory right to audio record a section 6330 proceeding because
it is a “hearing”, as distinguished from an “interview”, and,
therefore, is not subject to the provisions of section
7521(a)(1). The distinction, respondent argues, is that an
“interview” is technically one initiated by the IRS that the
taxpayer is under some compulsion to attend and is for the
purpose of gathering information to use in the determination or
collection of tax. In respondent’s view, a taxpayer “interview”
5 Petitioner has cited and relied on several existing
sections of the Internal Revenue Manual, as well as Publication 1
entitled “Your Rights as a Taxpayer”, sec. IV, par. 2, sentence
2, which states that taxpayers “may make sound recordings of any
meeting with our examination, appeal, or collection personnel”.
Although we recognize that these are not statements of statutory
or regulatory rights, audio recordings by taxpayers of Appeals
conferences have been permitted since the early 1980s, and the
practice continued after the enactment of sec. 7521(a)(1) in 1988
and secs. 6320 and 6330 in 1998. It was not until May 2, 2002,
in its unpublished Memorandum to All Appeals Area Directors that
the Appeals Office began denying taxpayers the right to make
audio recordings in Appeals cases.
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