https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopicc03.pdf
The above is the long answer which balances the IRS' duty to protect the confidentially of tax return info along with the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act.
What you are looking for, though, is here.
26 USC 6103 (h)
Translation: If Mueller wants them he can subpoena them for his grand jury.
The above is the long answer which balances the IRS' duty to protect the confidentially of tax return info along with the Privacy Act and the Freedom of Information Act.
What you are looking for, though, is here.
26 USC 6103 (h)
Quote:
(h) Disclosure to certain Federal officers and employees for purposes of tax administration, etc.
(1) Department of the Treasury
Returns and return information shall, without written request, be open to inspection by or disclosure to officers and employees of the Department of the Treasury whose official duties require such inspection or disclosure for tax administration purposes.
(2) Department of Justice In a matter involving tax administration, a return or return information shall be open to inspection by or disclosure to officers and employees of the Department of Justice (including United States attorneys) personally and directly engaged in, and solely for their use in, any proceeding before a Federal grand jury or preparation for any proceeding (or investigation which may result in such a proceeding) before a Federal grand jury or any Federal or State court, but only if—
(A)
the taxpayer is or may be a party to the proceeding, or the proceeding arose out of, or in connection with, determining the taxpayer’s civil or criminal liability, or the collection of such civil liability in respect of any tax imposed under this title;
(B)
the treatment of an item reflected on such return is or may be related to the resolution of an issue in the proceeding or investigation; or
©
such return or return information relates or may relate to a transactional relationship between a person who is or may be a party to the proceeding and the taxpayer which affects, or may affect, the resolution of an issue in such proceeding or investigation.
(3) Form of requestIn any case in which the Secretary is authorized to disclose a return or return information to the Department of Justice pursuant to the provisions of this subsection—
(A)
if the Secretary has referred the case to the Department of Justice, or if the proceeding is authorized by subchapter B of chapter 76, the Secretary may make such disclosure on his own motion, or
(B)
if the Secretary receives a written request from the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, or an Assistant Attorney General for a return of, or return information relating to, a person named in such request and setting forth the need for the disclosure, the Secretary shall disclose return or return the information so requested.
Translation: If Mueller wants them he can subpoena them for his grand jury.
