The Internal Revenue Service disseminates a variety of information to the public. Section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001  [Public Law 106-554] requires Federal agencies to issue guidelines ensuring and maximizing the quality, utility, objectivity, and integrity of disseminated information.

Background

In section 515(a) of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001(Public Law 106-554), Congress directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to issue, by September 30, 2001, government-wide guidelines that “provide policy and procedural guidance to Federal agencies for ensuring and maximizing the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information (including statistical information) disseminated by Federal agencies.” The OMB section 515 guidelines have been prepared to ensure and maximize the quality, utility, objectivity, and integrity of information disseminated by Federal agencies. The guidelines direct each federal agency to issue its own section 515 guidelines.

In response to the OMB directive, the guidelines presented here describe procedures the Internal Revenue Service will employ to ensure the quality of its information products, including their utility, objectivity, integrity, transparency, and reproducibility.