IRS refusing to release thousands of docs related to White House requests for taxpayer info

The revelation by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) came as part of a lawsuit filed by non-profit group Cause of Action, which began investigating whether the IRS was improperly sharing taxpayer information with the White House in 2012. Cause of Action originally filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the IRS to turn over any documents, if they existed, related to correspondence between the IRS and the White House about requests for tax returns for individuals or businesses. When the IRS said it was unable to do so because of constraints in the Internal Revenue Code, the group filed the lawsuit. A judge ruled that the IRS must turn over any relevant documents to Cause of Action by Dec. 1 to comply with the FOIA request. On Tuesday, an attorney with TIGTA wrote a letter to Cause of Action, and acknowledged that the watchdog had located "2,509 pages of documents potentially responsive to your request." Of those, TIGTA confirmed that 2,043 were in fact responsive to the request.

All of the 2,043 pages of documents we have determined to be responsive were collected by the Secretary of the Treasury with respect to the determination of possible liability under Title 26 of the United States Code. These pages consist of return information protected by 26 U.S.C. § 6103 and may not be disclosed absent an express statutory exception," said the office in a letter dated Dec. 1. Instead, Treasury, which oversees the IRS, plans to hand over 466 documents on Dec. 15 that apparently aren't covered by privacy laws or being proved by the Treasury secretary.

When asked about the case Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said he wasn't familiar with it but that the administration "very closely adheres to rules that ensure the IRS operates without political interference.

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