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interviews. A written statement handed to the taxpayer
at an audit or collection interview or within a short
time before the interview is sufficient. * * *
H. Conf. Rept. 100-1104, at 213 (1988), 1988-3 C.B. 473, 703.
Section 7521(b)(1) and the conference report make clear
that, when Congress used the phrase “in-person interview” in
section 7521, it did not have in mind either the dictionary
definition of the term “interview” on which the majority
improperly relies or the historically voluntary and informal
hearings or conferences before Appeals. The descriptions by
Congress in section 7521 itself and its legislative history leave
no doubt that what Congress meant when it used the phrase “in-
person interview” in section 7521, including section 7521(a)(1),
is an in-person audit interview and an in-person collection
interview, which take place during the audit process and the
collection process, respectively, and the function of which is to
investigate and determine facts relating to the determination and
the collection of any tax. Thus, it makes perfect sense that
Congress decided in section 7521 to allow taxpayers, sec.
7521(a)(1), as well as the IRS, sec. 7521(a)(2), to record such
types of interviews. That is because in-person audit interviews
and in-person collection interviews are interviews initiated by
the IRS that taxpayers are under some compulsion to attend and
that the IRS conducts for the purpose of gathering information to
use in the determination of and the collection of tax,
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