In a memorandum to all IRS employees dated March 27,
2020, the Deputy Commissioner for enforcement decreed that in order to assist employees,
taxpayers, and their representatives who are working from alternative locations
during the national virus disaster, a “temporary
deviation” will now allow the wide-spread use of email and other forms of
digital communication.
Specifically, the decree says IRS employees can now
accept images of signatures (scanned or photographed) and digital signatures on
documents related to the determination or collection of tax liability.
Also now permitted, IRS employees can now transmit
documents to taxpayers using SecureZip[1] or
other established secured messaging systems.
The categories of documents include a broad range of
key IRS operative documents.
Signatures
Under this temporary arrangement, the IRS will
accept images of signatures (scanned or photographed) in one of the following
file types: tiff, jpg, jpeg, pdf, Microsoft Office suite, or Zip.
The IRS will also accept digital signatures that use
encryption techniques to provide proof of original and unmodified documentation
on one of the following file types: tiff, jpg, jpeg, pdf, Microsoft Office
suite, or Zip.
To eliminate mailing documents to the extent
possible, IRS employees can continue to use all existing and previously
allowable means of receiving and transmitting documents, such as eFax or
established secured messaging systems.
Taxpayer’s
Choice
The choice to transmit and receive documents electronically
is solely that of the taxpayer. If the taxpayer is not able to eFax the
executed document or to provide them through established secure messaging, the
taxpayer may use email with attachments to transmit the document to the IRS if the following steps are taken:
NEW
RULES
“Trust but Verify”
1. Before
engaging in the temporary liberalized protocols, agents are now required to use
the telephone to authenticate the identity of the person who is trying to
communicate digitally.
2. The
taxpayer or the representative must be advised on the phone that unencrypted
email over the internet is not secure. They must explain that, except for minimal
identifying information in the body of the email, for example, name, last four
digits of a TIN, they should keep sensitive information out of the subject line
and body of emails, as much as possible, and should use password-protected encrypted
attachments via SecureZip as much as possible.
Taxpayers
and Representatives Must Include a New Statement
of Intent with All Electronic Communications
The new procedures now require a statement, either
in the form of an attached cover letter or within the body of the email to the
effect,
“The attached [name of document] includes
[name of taxpayer]’s valid signature and the taxpayer intends to transmit the
attached document to the IRS.”
IRS
Electronic Transmittals to Taxpayers—Need to Call First to Solicit a “Test
Email” With Consent to Receive an Email from the IRS
If the taxpayer or representative can use, or has access
to email but has no fax machine, the IRS employee is ordered to send an email first with SecureZip or
other IRS established secured messaging systems. The IRS employee is instructed to ask the
taxpayer or representative to send the employee a “test email” to confirm the
email address, with a statement indicating,
“[Name of taxpayer] consents to receiving [name of documents]
by SecureZip.”
Finally, the agent must inform the taxpayer or the
representative by phone, that he will
be transmitting the document through a password-protected SecureZip attachment.
NO
DISCLOSURES IN EMAIL SUBJECT LINES: NEW PASSWORD PROCEDURE
Employees are reminded that sensitive information
often appears in email subject lines and employees are directed to use
password-protected encrypted attachments and to refer to http://it.web.irs.gov/news/20120713HTLSecureZIPtips.htm
and follow the instructions there.
NO
EMAILING OF PASSWORDS
IRS personnel are now advised that 12 character,
upper and lower case letters with a symbol and a number must be communicated verbally
to the representative or taxpayer.
For years, practitioners and taxpayers have lamented
the fact that revenue agents and revenue officers have been prohibited from
using email. While this convention was observed more in the breach than in
compliance, out of sheer frustration, dedicated Service employees including
Appeals Officers and Area Counsel
employees used it anyway, recognizing
that the 21st century it was imperative that the government do
business on the same level as the private sector. It is a sad irony, indeed that
it has taken a national disaster to cause this significant change in the way
the IRS communicates with the public. Although the new temporary procedures
appear to be unduly cumbersome, it is likely that the taxpayers and representatives
around the country will applaud this latest effort by the government to take
part in the national recovery.
These new protocols are scheduled to expire by July 15.
It is hoped that they will not be revoked entirely and that something will
remain of the new procedures that will be a permanent change for the better.
[1]
SecureZIP is an application for zipping files to save storage space as well as
encrypting files with password control to protect information. SecureZIP not
only works alone to perform the zipping and encryption functions but also
integrates well with Microsoft Office 2010 to facilitate information security
in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
