A topic that regularly comes up year after year in Tax Court cases is the issue of whether a document meets the requirements for protection under the timely mailed, timely filed rule found in IRC §7502(a).  In the case of Seely v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2020-6,[1] we have one of the infrequent taxpayer victories when faced with such a challenge.

A CPA firm may be faced with a subpoena related to a client to produce various documents, including tax returns, when a client is a party to a suit.  The validity of the subpoena is a key issue, since generally CPAs are not allowed to voluntarily disclose client information in most cases under state law and tax-related information under the federal law, but the CPA must produce those documents when the law does mandate such production. 

In the case of Anyclo International, Inc. V. Cha, US District Court District of New Jersey, Case No. 18-5759[1], the question arose regarding whether a plaintiff in a civil suit could obtain a copy of the defendant’s income tax returns from the defendant’s CPA.  Or, in the alternative, would such production be a violation of the defendant’s privacy rights.