Tax Controversy Attorneys Discuss Expanding Scope of IRS Discovery Requests in Law360

Tax partner Kathleen Saunders Gregor discusses in Law360 how the IRS is increasingly asking for document discovery during examinations in a manner that would not be permitted under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Tax Court rules, as seen in the government’s recent summons enforcement suit against Facebook in a California district court. In the article, titled “A Loose Standard For IRS Enforcement,” the authors explain that this asymmetry has encouraged the IRS to “actively push factual development of future litigation into the examination stage,” with mixed results for taxpayers defending against IRS enforcement actions.