11.3.5. Fees

(1) Internal Revenue Service employees receive requests for tax returns and return information in judicial or administrative proceedings. This section contains instructions for collecting authorized fees for providing copies of records and for related services such as record searches and reviews.

(2) The fee structures established in this IRM are primarily for the use of employees in PGLD, Disclosure. Other business units attempting to establish new user fees for the disclosure of records applicable to their specific business unit needs may use the fee structures in this IRM as a basis for establishing user fees. The business units should consult with the Chief Financial Office, as well as their appropriate Chief Counsel contacts, prior to the creation of their own fee structures.

(1) 31 USC 9701 states that each service or item of value provided by an agency to a person must be self-sustaining to the extent possible. User charges must be fair and based upon the cost to the Government, the value of the service or item to the recipient, the public policy or interest served, and other relevant facts.

(2) Generally, federal agencies must credit user fee collections to the general fund of the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts, as required by 31 USC 3302, unless a statute provides otherwise. The Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 103–329), enacted on September 30, 1994, allowed the Service to spend up to $119 million per fiscal year of new or increased user fee receipts, provided the fees were based on the cost of providing services. On January 4, 2005, the Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and the Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 2006 (Pub. L. 109–115) eliminated the $119 million cap on annual spending. This effectively allows the Service to retain receipts from new user fees or increases to existing fees.

(3) Statutory provisions that relate specifically to charges for the disclosure of records by the Internal Revenue Service include:

1. 5 USC 552(a)(4)(A)

2. 5 USC 552a(f)(5)

3. IRC 6110(k)(1)

4. IRC 6103(p)(2)

(4) The Department of the Treasury issued regulations establishing fees for specific services in connection with the disclosure of records for the FOIA process at 31 CFR Part 1, Section 1.7 . The IRS has issued regulations at 26 CFR 601.702(f) to implement and enhance the Treasury regulations.

(5) The FOIA provides that certain categories of requesters also receive a basic level of services without fees or at reduced fees.

(1) The Director, Governmental Liaison, Disclosure and Safeguards (GLDS) is the executive responsible for the Disclosure program.

(2) The Associate Director, Disclosure is the program manager for Disclosure.

(3) Disclosure managers are responsible for assessing, implementing and communicating the application of fees for Disclosure casework.

(4) Non-Disclosure management officials are responsible for assessing, implementing and communicating the application of fees for requests for IRS records applicable to their specific business operations.

(5) Per IRM 1.35.17.1.3.3, the Cost Accounting (CA) and User Fees Office, within CFO, is responsible for establishing, maintaining, interpreting, and ensuring compliance with policies and procedures for cost accounting, user fees and trust fund administrative costs.

(6) IRS employees with responsibilities to process requests for IRS records pursuant to various disclosure laws are responsible for assessing and collecting appropriate fees.

(1) Disclosure inventory management and case processing is facilitated within FOIAXpress (FX), which is monitored and maintained by the GLDS Data Services office. FX allows management to validate program compliance through generating reports and requiring inventory to be processed under IRC 6103 statutory authority.

(1) Disclosure program oversight also includes participation in operational and quality reviews. The Disclosure Office uses the Embedded Quality Review System (EQRS) to perform quality review on Disclosure specific casework.

(1) OPEN Government Act refers to a United States statute enacted in 2007 that modified the FOIA and affected how Federal Agencies may assess and collect fees related to FOIA activities.

(2) Federal Records Center (FRC) is the facility under the administration of National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to control federal agency records that have been scheduled for archive. Agencies may access records following prescribed procedures.

(3) User Fees are charges levied by a federal agency on individuals or entities directly benefiting from a service provided by a government program or activity. User fees are charged for federal activities that provide recipients with benefits greater than those provided to the general public.

(4) Direct Costs are those expenses that a component expends in searching for and duplicating (and, in the case of commercial-use requests, reviewing) records in order to respond to a FOIA request. For example, direct costs include the salary of the employee performing the work (i.e., the basic rate of pay for the employee, plus 16 percent of that rate to cover benefits) and the cost of operating computers and other electronic equipment, such as photocopiers and scanners. Direct costs do not include overhead expenses such as the costs of space and of heating or lighting a facility.

(5) The following table is a list of acronyms that are used in this IRM section:

(1) The following table lists other sources of guidance on fees for agency records:

(2) Additional information on FOIA fees may also be found at this related resource:

• Department of Justice Guide to the Freedom of Information Act at: https://www.justice.gov/oip/doj-guide-freedom-information-act-0

• OMB Fee Guidelines at: https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/oip/legacy/2014/07/23/foia_fee_schedule_1987.pdf

(1) Duplication is the process of making a copy of a document necessary to respond to a request. Copies can take the form of paper, microfilm, audio-visual materials or machine readable documentation (disks).

(2) The fee for paper copies is $0.20 per copy of each page up to 8 1/2'' x 14''.

(3) Charge fees for copies exceeding 8 1/2'' x 14'' in multiples of $0.20 for each additional 119 square inches or fraction thereof, unless the equipment used to produce the copies is known to involve an actual cost exceeding that rate.

(4) Charge the actual, direct cost required to duplicate photographs, films, and other similar materials.

(5) The fee for copies is the same regardless of whether copies are produced in response to a request at hand or are drawn from existing stocks including, but not limited to, at the convenience of the IRS, original materials or surplus printed materials. See IRM 11.3.13, Freedom of Information Act, regarding FOIA requests that involve the release of free IRS publications.

(6) Copy fees apply to records produced by word processing equipment and computer printouts. Additional charges may apply for searching data processing or word processing equipment in order to produce copies.

(7) See IRM 11.3.5.2.3, Fees for Electronic Records, for procedures on fees for records produced on electronic media. See IRM 11.3.5.3.2.4, Processing Requests, for procedures relating to limitations on the assessment of duplication fees when certain response deadlines are not met.

(8) Even though a FOIA requester specifies inspection rather than a request for copies, duplication fees apply when it is necessary to produce a copy to permit inspection. Examples of duplicating records to permit inspection are:

1. Original documents requiring redactions of exempt material prior to inspection

2. The storage medium does not allow visual inspection

3. Equipment needed for inspection is not available at the inspection site

4. Transfer of an open case file would disrupt tax administration

(9) It is standard practice that duplication charges are assessed only for those copies that are released, not for any responsive record withheld in its entirety.

(1) Search time includes all the time spent looking for responsive material, including page-by-page or line-by-line identification of material within documents. This can include, but is not limited to:

• planning and managing the search

• preparing memorandums or making phone calls to the offices that actually perform the search activity

• reporting on the results of the search and/or restoring any documents to their proper place in the file

• any analysis necessary to determine that a record is subject to the request and any time spent examining a file to identify individual records subject to the request

(2) The regulations at 26 CFR 601.702(f) provide for search fees at the salary rate of the person making the search. The regulations also permit the Service to establish an average rate in lieu of doing a computation for each search. The average fee for services of clerical, professional, and supervisory personnel involved in locating records is $50.00 for each hour.

(3) Portions of less than one hour should be aggregated before "rounding up" when multiple searches are conducted.

(4) The fee for searches of computerized records is the actual direct cost of the search, including computer search time, runs, tape duplication, other operations, computer programming costs for data base extraction and similar programs, and the operator's salary. Computer costs are described in IRM 11.3.5.2.3, Fees for Electronic Records.

(5) See IRM 11.3.5.3.2.4, Processing Requests, for procedures relating to limitations on the assessment of search fees when certain response deadlines are not met.

(1) Fees for the use of computers and related data processing equipment are based on actual costs to the Service.

(2) Fees apply to all data processing operations required by the request, regardless of whether they are characterized as conversion to electronic format, searches, runs, matches, analyses, or other terms.

(3) Variations in equipment and operations necessary to service a request preclude establishing a standard fee in many cases. Base actual costs on information provided by employees performing the services.

(4) In addition to fees based on the equipment used, computer costs may include employee salary. For non-commercial requesters, the charges begin when the cost exceeds the equivalent dollar amount of any free services allowed for the requester's fee category type. See 26 CFR 601.702(f)(5)(i)(B).

(5) Because inquiries using IDRS incur minimal computer time costs, only charge for applicable review time and copies of records that must be duplicated in the format asked for by the requester.

(6) If records available in one format require conversion to another format (i.e. paper records requiring scanning to be provided on electronic media) in order to provide records in the format sought by the requester, charge for direct costs related to converting (scanning, etc.) records to facilitate delivery of the records. The current direct cost of duplicating records for electronic media is $30 per hour. Preferred requesters and Other requesters receive 1,000 pages free of charge when converting original paper copies to electronic media. Commercial User requesters receive no free allowance for duplication efforts.

(7) If requesters do not agree to pay for the duplication efforts, FOIA caseworkers must document case notes with all requester discussions and calculations of charges. If the requester attempts to request the same records in the future, they will either need to re-scope their request to reduce the charges or agree to pay the costs incurred for duplicating the records in the original request.

(8) Requesters will pay fees for electronic services based on their requester category and the category of the service provided (Duplication, Searches, Review), after taking into account the $25.00 minimum billing amount when computing fees.

(1) Review is the examination of a record located in response to a request in order to determine whether any portion of it is exempt from disclosure. Review time includes processing any record for disclosure, such as doing all that is necessary to prepare the record for disclosure, including the process of redacting the record and marking the appropriate exemptions. It does not include time spent resolving general legal or policy issues regarding the application of exemptions.

(2) Charge review fees only for the initial determination to apply FOIA exemptions to requested records. Do not charge the same fees again after appeal of withheld records. However, review charges may be appropriate when exemptions are considered for the first time subsequent to an appeal, such as in the case of a total denial where no review charges were assessed initially.

(3) The regulations at 26 CFR 601.702(f) provide for review fees at the salary rate of the person performing the review. The regulations also permit the Service to establish an average rate in lieu of individual computations each time records are reviewed. The average fee for services of clerical, professional and supervisory personnel involved in reviewing records is currently $50.00 for each hour. The provisions for review activities taking less than one hour are identical to those found in IRM 11.3.5.2.2, Searches.

(1) Provide other services and materials not specifically identified elsewhere at actual cost.

(2) Bill actual shipping charges for moving records from one location to another or for an employee's travel to the site of requested records. When shipping records using a shipping service, use the current version of Form 9814, Request for Mail/Shipping Service.

(3) The IRS may, at its discretion, provide, and charge fees for services not generally required by the IRS such as:

• Certifying that records are true copies

• Sending records using special methods such as express mail

(1) Under the FOIA, requesters fall into one of four different user categories. The category of user determines the range of fees an agency may charge for FOIA services.

(1) Depending on the nature of the request, the fee category of the requester, the requester's past payment history and other issues, requests generally require a commitment to pay and may require pre-payment and the resolution of past debts in some instances.

(1) The FOIA allows agencies to furnish records without charge, or at a reduced charge, when the agency determines that waiver or reduction fees is in the public interest and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester. See IRM 11.3.5.3.3.1.1, Public Interest and Humanitarian Purposes, for additional information.

(2) The application of various disclosure statutes may sometimes overlap. Requests made pursuant to Privacy Act or Internal Revenue Code provisions may also appear to have FOIA aspects. Waive fees regardless of the statute cited in the disclosure request or the procedure under which the case is controlled and processed if the services provided are substantially similar to those performed in response to FOIA requests.

(3) Apply the most appropriate fees for any services provided. If varying fees appear to be equally applicable to a situation, Disclosure Managers may exercise discretion to apply the lowest appropriate fee.

(4) Nothing in this IRM prevents IRS employees from providing copies of tax administration records without charge while performing assigned tax administration duties. For example, compliance employees may provide copies of returns or work papers without charge to taxpayers and their representatives as needed to facilitate the examination of returns or collection of taxes due.

(1) If the costs of routine collection and processing of a fee are likely to equal or exceed the amount of the fee, the FOIA requires agencies to forego collection of that fee.

(2) In order to comply with this provision, IRS will charge no fee in any FOIA case unless the fee (after accounting for any free search, review or duplication efforts) is equal to, or exceeds, $25.00.

(3) You may combine fees outstanding from prior requests with current charges to meet the $25.00 minimum for billing.

(1) When there is reasonable evidence that a requester, or group of requesters, has broken down a single request into a series of FOIA requests in an attempt to evade search, review and/or duplication fees, aggregate the requests and apply the appropriate fees for the aggregated request.

(2) Requests may only be aggregated if they are for clearly related records. If requests are received for unrelated matters, charge appropriate search, review and/or duplication fees for each request separately. Some examples of unrelated requests:

1. Audit records and contract files

2. A Taxpayer Delinquent Account (TDA) file and collection delegation orders

3. General Counsel Memorandum (GCM) background files and various IRM sections

(3) Notification that requests are being aggregated must be provided to the requester(s) to make them aware of potential fees that are, or may become, due.

(4) While requests may be aggregated if circumstances are appropriate, it is not appropriate to advise a requester that "in the future, we will aggregate any requests you submit." Aggregation should be used on a case-by-case basis.

(1) As a part of closing and responding on a processed case, caseworkers must:

1. determine any appropriate fees,

2. update the inventory management system with all fees owed by the requester, and

3. prepare fee payment stubs and invoices for billing.

Note: Caseworkers must document all fees due, along with a breakdown for different fees charged to requesters (i.e. separate search, review and duplication fee calculations) in case notes.

(2) Caseworkers request payments using appropriate pattern correspondence that identifies the payment amount, a breakdown of fees owed, payment types accepted, an address for mailing the payment to the Department of the Treasury and a payment due date.

(3) If GSS is in possession of a held payment (i.e. a payment received with a request or an unsolicited payment regarding a closed request that GSS holds locally while awaiting a determination from Disclosure on what to do with the payment), caseworkers must:

1. determine the status of the payment within 20 working days based on the determination of fees being due for a request,

2. advise GSS to send the payment to Beckley or return the voided payment instrument to the requester, as appropriate to the situation and

3. prepare any fee payment stubs, invoices, refund memos, response letters, etc. to ensure the payment is processed or returned in accordance with any fees that ultimately become due for a request.

(4) If a request requires advance payment, because a fee of $250 or more is estimated to be due or because of a requester’s previous payment history, the caseworker:

1. estimates the fee as accurately as possible while, to the extent practicable, avoids overbilling which results in the later issuance of a refund and,

   Note: When estimating fees, caseworkers should use the lower end of estimations (i.e. a search memo response estimates between 3 and 8 hours of search time, caseworkers should use 3 hours to estimate search fees) when calculating potential fees for advance payments. This reduces the need to complete refunds, which can be costly to the service and allows any additional fees to be billed to the requester if the estimate is below final fee amounts that become due.

2. prepares a fee payment stub and invoice for pre-payment.

Note: After advance payment is received, and after completion of case processing, the caseworker calculates and updates the final fee amounts due in the inventory management system. Caseworkers should apply the payment to the case in the inventory management system and prepare a fee payment stub and/or invoice if additional fees became due or initiates the refund process, as appropriate.

Caution: If an advance payment is not received within 35 calendar days of the date of notification, caseworkers must remove any invoices in the inventory management system prior to closing the case to ensure future requests from the requester are not inappropriately closed for failure to pay fees. Requesters are only responsible to pay fees on closed cases for FOIA searches, reviews and duplication efforts actually completed.

Note: If advance payment is received after the 35 days provided to the requester, and GSS creates a new request, caseworkers should create a new invoice in the new request and apply any payments received to the appropriate advance fee payment amounts.

(5) Upon learning that a FOIA payment was misapplied to a taxpayer’s account, unidentified remittance account or an account other than the appropriate IRS FOIA fee account, the caseworker:

1. prints the IDRS transcript that shows where the payment was applied, if applicable,

2. prints a copy of the payment from the remittance transaction register (RTR)

3. completes the debit section of Form 2424, Account Adjustment Voucher with the name, address, Master File Tax (MFT) code, period, transaction date (Transaction Code (TC) 670 date), 1st transaction (Transaction Code (TC) 672), and the debit amount (amount of the total payment misapplied)

4. completes the credit section by entering 5100 in the Name and address section, recording the transaction date (TC 670 date), 1st transaction (TC 670), and the credit amount (must be the same as debit amount)

5. completes the explanation with the following language - "FOIA payment for case [enter complete case number] misapplied. Must be credited to Beckley for FOIA Acct. – 3223. Please IPAC"

6. Mail all three documents (IDRS print, RTR print and Form 2424 as appropriate) to:


Internal Revenue Service
Attn: RACS - Team 104, Mail Stop 6261
333 W Pershing
Kansas City, MO 64108

Note: See IRM 10.5.1.6.9.3, Shipping, for information on proper shipping procedures for materials containing SBU information or PII. Also see Document 13144, Proper PII Shipping Procedures, and Document 13056, Shipping Procedures for Personally Identifiable Information (PII), for more information on shipping procedures

7. adds the fee to the inventory management system for the case if not already applied there

8. posts payment and applies it to the case if it is not already posted there

Note: If the misapplied payment is located during the processing of a case and is the result of FOIA fees for another case, the caseworker advises their Disclosure Manager who will notify original caseworker’s manager. The original caseworker is responsible for taking all applicable corrective actions in (a) through (h) above.

(1) When the GSS receives a payment associated with an open or closed case with a fee due on the inventory management system (usually with a fee payment stub), GSS:

1. scans an image of the check and imports it into the closed case,

2. posts the payment to the inventory management system,

3. notifies the caseworker, and

4. forwards the payment to Beckley following instructions in (5), below.

(2) When the GSS receives an unsolicited payment with an original request, GSS:

1. scans the request and payment

2. indexes the request as a new case

3. suspends the payment by recording receipt of, and retaining, the payment securely

4. does not post the payment to the inventory management system

5. follows caseworker instructions to send the payment to Beckley or return the voided payment instrument to the requester using appropriate pattern letter language

Note: GSS will review the held payments log periodically and initiate contact with Disclosure Managers to address payments held beyond 20 work days, as necessary.

(3) When the GSS receives an advance payment (with an advance fee payment stub) on an open request, GSS:

1. scans a copy of the advance fee payment stub, the payment, as well as any correspondence received, and imports them into the appropriate case

2. posts the payment to the inventory management system

3. forwards payment to Beckley Finance Center following instructions in (5) below

(4) When the GSS receives an advance payment (with an advance fee payment stub) on a closed request (i.e. the requester did not make an advance payment within 35 days of notification), GSS:

1. scans a copy of the advance fee payment stub, the payment, as well any correspondence received to reference the original request, and creates a new request in the inventory management system

2. posts the payment to the new request

3. forwards payment to Beckley Finance Center following instructions in (5) below

(5) GSS prepares Form 3210, Document Transmittal, listing all payments received and not suspended, the requester name, payment amount, the check or money order number and date along with the account number for depositing the funds, as follows:

1. Account 3223 – FOIA requests, PA requests, and miscellaneous. (See IRM 11.3.5.1.2(2) , Authority, for additional information)

2. Account 20X6877 – Returns and return information (IRC 6103)

(6) GSS forwards Form 3210 and payments to the Beckley Accounting section at:

Internal Revenue Service - Beckley
Attn: DCU
PO Box 9002
Beckley, WV 25802-9002

If using UPS for shipping, forward Form 3210 and payments to:
Internal Revenue Service - Beckley
Attn: DCU
110 N. Heber St.
Beckley, WV 25801