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legislative history of section 7521 indicates that the Service
may meet this obligation with a “written statement handed to the
taxpayer” at or shortly before the initial in-person interview.
H. Conf. Rept. 100-1104, at 213 (1988), 1988-3 C.B. 473, 703.
Together, section 7521(b) and the legislative history suggest
that Congress envisioned an “in-person interview” as an interview
where both a Service representative and the taxpayer (or his
representative), see sec. 7521(c), are physically present and
able to “hand” information to each other. See also IRS Field
Serv. Advisory 200206055 (February 2002) and IRS General
Litigation Bulletin No. 355 (April 1990), which generally
distinguish section 7521 “in-person interviews” from “written
communication or telephone conversations” between the Service and
taxpayers.
We conclude, therefore, that the term “in-person interview”
in section 7521(a) refers to an interview in which the IRS
representative and the taxpayer and/or his representative are
face-to-face, that is, they are within each other’s physical
presence.
D. Application to Section 6330 Telephone Hearings
1. Whether Section 7521(a)(1) Entitles Petitioner To Make
an Audio Recording of His Section 6330 Telephone Hearing
Respondent contends that there is a material difference
between the section 6330 hearing in Keene and the section 6330
hearing at issue here. In Keene v. Commissioner, supra at 13,
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