Court Rejects Request for Employee Retention Credit Guidelines

A Dentons Sirote PC shareholder isn’t entitled to receive internal guidance on how IRS employees review and assess Covid-19-related employee retention credit claims under the Freedom of Information Act, a federal court said Wednesday.

The IRS properly withheld information from tax attorney Michelle Levin’s 2023 request for ERC processing guidance, according to Judge Herman N. Johnson Jr. of the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. FOIA Exemption 7(A), which relates to information related to pending investigations, and FOIA Exemption 7(E), which concerns how the IRS enforces revenue laws, protect the requested documents from disclosure, the opinion said. ...