GTA Reviews IRS Compliance with Legal Guidelines for
Direct Contact of Tax Payers and Their Representatives


TIGTA reviews IRS compliance with legal guidelines for direct contact of tax
payers and their representatives [Audit Report No. 2007-40-118]: An annual
statutory review of IRS's compliance with restrictions on directly
contacting taxpayers resulted in a positive report on the agency's conduct,
said a recent audit by TIGTA.  

As described in the audit, the direct contact provisions of Code Sec. 7521(b)
(2) and Code Sec. 7521(c) require IRS employees to stop a taxpayer interview
whenever a taxpayer requests to consult with a representative, and to obtain 
approval to contact the taxpayer instead of the representative if the representative 
is unreasonably delaying the completion of an examination or collection action. 

Auditors examined "the limited number of complaints" regarding the issue and found 
no instances of an IRS employee disregarding the requests of taxpayers. 
The audit can be found here.