About the IRS Electronic Reading Room

Subsection (a)(2) of the FOIA ( 5 U.S.C. § 552, as amended) requires agencies to make certain categories of records available for public inspection and copying. These include:

1. Final opinions, including concurring and dissenting opinions, as well as orders, made in the adjudication of cases;
2. Those statements of policy and interpretations which have been adopted by the IRS and are not published in the Federal Register;
3. Administrative staff manuals and instructions to staff that affect a member of the public;
4. Copies of records previously released under the FOIA, which the IRS determines may become or are likely to become the subject of future requests for substantially the same records; and
5. A general index of the records referred to under (D) above. The IRS Freedom of Information Reading Room also maintains indexes of documents listed in subsections (A) - (C) above.

For any record listed in FOIA subsections (a)(2)(A) - (E) created by the IRS on or after November 1, 1996, the FOIA now requires that it be made available electronically. The IRS achieves this electronic availability through this FOIA website. Those records currently available electronically are listed by subject category in the table above.

These and other records are also available for inspection and copying in the IRS Freedom of Information Reading Room located at 1111 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20224 (call (202) 622-5164).

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