§412 Special provisions concerning the Department of the Treasury

Summary

The Secretary of the Treasury can take charge of the Treasury Department’s Inspector General when an audit, investigation, or subpoena would need very sensitive information. That sensitive information covers six kinds of things: ongoing criminal cases, undercover work, identities of secret sources or protected witnesses, internal policy discussions that could sway the economy, intelligence or counterintelligence, and other national security or protected-person matters. If the Secretary decides it is necessary to stop an Inspector General from starting, finishing, seeing, or subpoenaing such material to prevent disclosure or serious harm to U.S. interests, the Secretary may do so. The Secretary must give the Inspector General a written notice explaining why, and within 30 days the Inspector General must send that notice to the Senate Committees on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and on Finance and to the House Committees on Oversight and Reform and on Ways and Means, and to other appropriate committees. The Secretary may not use those powers over the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) handles all Inspector General work about the Internal Revenue Service. TIGTA’s access to tax returns and return information must follow section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code and related rules, and the IRS must keep standard records of TIGTA’s requests and disclosures. The Secretary must set up rules for how the Treasury Inspector General and TIGTA divide work and coordinate when jurisdictions overlap. The Treasury Inspector General may still audit or investigate parts of the Treasury, including the Tax and Trade Bureau, and if the Inspector General starts an audit of that bureau and gives written notice, no other Inspector General audit of that same matter may continue. TIGTA has special law-enforcement roles: it must enforce certain criminal tax laws (26 U.S.C. 7608(b)), may carry firearms, may protect IRS employees from outside threats (but not do background checks or protect the Commissioner), and may assign staff to those duties. TIGTA must report reasonable grounds to believe a federal crime occurred to the Attorney General at a time TIGTA decides. People appointed to TIGTA, certain assistant inspector general jobs, or deputy inspector general posts may not have been IRS employees for the 2-year period before appointment or for 5 years after leaving the job; an effective date of November 27, 2017 applies to specified assistant positions. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue or the IRS Oversight Board may ask TIGTA in writing to do an audit or investigation; if TIGTA refuses it must give a timely written reason. Final audit reports must be sent to the Commissioner and the Oversight Board, and TIGTA must regularly give lists of completed investigations and provide reports on request.