IRS Compliance & Administrative Procedure Toolkit
1. Settling Accounts via Fedwire
To settle an account through **Fedwire**, the taxpayer must follow specific procedures found in the Internal Revenue Manual [1].
- Grant Authorization: You must grant authorization to utilize Fedwire to settle the account [2].
- Bill of Exchange: If a registered Bill of Exchange is received authorizing settlement through Fedwire, the IRS campus employee has no discretion; they must follow mandatory actions [3].
- Mandatory Forwarding: The IRS has no option but to forward the instrument to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury [4, 5]. They do not have the authority to make a determination on its validity [3, 6].
- Deposit Status: The act of the IRS placing the instrument into an envelope for next-day air transmittal to the Treasury constitutes a deposit under banking principles [7, 8].
2. Formal Dispute Process
When the IRS fails to follow its own manual or perform its duties, a specific dispute process must be initiated [9, 10].
- Administrative Notification: Provide proof of delivery using a certified mail receipt to force an internal trace [10].
- Request Investigation: Formally ask for an investigation and state that the IRS failed to follow its own procedures [11].
- Cite the APA: State that the failure to follow the manual violates the Administrative Procedures Act [11, 12].
- Escalation: If the failure is not corrected immediately, escalate to independent entities like the Taxpayer Advocate Service or the IRS Office of Appeals [13].
3. Mandatory Legal Authorities
Government agencies are legally bound by their own published procedures [14].
- The Accardi Doctrine: Based on United States ex rel. Accardi v. Shaughnessy, agencies must follow their own rules; failure to do so constitutes a violation of law and creates federal liability [14-16].
- Ministerial Duties: When a judge or official performs ministerial functions (clerical/administrative), they act as administrative agents, not in a judicial capacity. They receive no judicial immunity and must follow the APA [17, 18].
- Fiduciary Duty: The IRS acts as a fiduciary; a breach of mandated, non-discretionary duties triggers legal consequences for malfeasance [14, 19, 20].
4. Proper Legal Citation Format
To provide "facts and conclusions of law" correctly, use the following formatting standard [21, 22]:
Every reference to the U.S. Code must be preceded by the corresponding Act of Congress and Statute at Large, with the U.S. Code itself placed in parentheses [21, 23].
Example: [Act of Congress] [Statute at Large] (U.S. Code)
5. Rebutting Presumptions
To effectively challenge administrative actions, you must anticipate and rebut presumptions before they are raised [24].
- State the presumption clearly as if it were an actual presumption [24].
- Rebut it using facts and conclusions of law supported by Acts of Congress and Supreme Court citations [24].
- Frame the rebuttal such that to challenge it would be to challenge the law itself [25].