FMIS - FOIA Request

April 3, 2014

SENT VIA CERTIFIED MAIL No. 9314869904300001800467
RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED

IRS FOIA Request
HQ FOIA
2385 Chamblee Tucker Road
Stop 211
Chamblee, GA 30341

Re: FOIA REQUEST
Fee waiver requested

Dear FOIA Officer:

Brager Tax Law Group, A P.C. is the owner of Tax Problem Attorney Blog, a publisher of news regarding taxation issues. Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, Tax Problem Attorney Blog hereby requests access, for purposes of inspection and copying, to the following records:

1. All training materials, that have not previously been published in the Internal Revenue Manual, or on the IRS website including but not limited to, memoranda, staff manuals, Powerpoint presentations, videos and other materials that have been used since January 1, 2011 for the purposes of training personnel on the implementation of the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (“OVDP”), or Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (“OVDI”) including opt-outs from said programs (hereinafter collectively the “Programs”).


2. All documents, that have not previously been published in the Internal Revenue Manual, or on the IRS website including but not limited to memoranda, staff manuals, Powerpoint presentations, videos and other materials which provide guidance, instruction, or other information on the determination of penalties for failure to file Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (“FBAR”) Form TD F 90-22.1, and FinCEN 114.


3. All documents, that have not previously been published in the Internal Revenue Manual, or on the IRS website including but not limited to memoranda, staff manuals, Powerpoint presentations, videos and other materials which have been used to implement the Programs, or otherwise instruct IRS employees on the workings of the Programs.

The above references to “documents” includes all information stored electronically including, but not limited to all e-mail and attachments, word processing documents, spreadsheets, graphics and presentation documents, images, text files, and other information stored on hard drives or removable media (e.g., desktops and portable thumb drives), meta-data, databases, instant messages, transaction logs, audio and video files, voicemail, web pages, computer logs, text messages, and backup and archived material.

Fee Waiver Request: Tax Problem Attorney Blog is gathering information on a matter of public interest, namely, IRS procedures and guidance on determinations under the Internal Revenue Code, and the Bank Secrecy Act. The records covered by this request are being sought for dissemination to the general public, both in written and electronic form, through the Tax Problem Attorney Blog and possibly other periodicals published by the Brager Tax Law Group, A P.C.

We ask that you please waive any applicable fees. Release of the information is in the public interest because it will contribute significantly to public understanding of IRS operations and activities, as indicated above. Tax Problem Attorney Blog and other publications have a history of covering the IRS, resulting in significant awareness of how government functions.

If this request is denied in whole or part, we ask that you justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the Act. In addition, we expect that the Service will release all segregable portions of otherwise exempt material, information or to deny a waiver of fees.

Thank you for your assistance, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Dennis Brager