91 STAT. 1104
PUBLIC LAW 95-125—OCT. 7, 1977
Public Law 95-125 95th Congress An Act Oct. 7, 1977 [S. 213]
Accounting and Auditing Act of 1950, amendments. IRS and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, audits. 26 USC 6406. Records, access.
26 USC 6103.
Nondisclosure.
Violations.
GAO employees with access to taxpayer information, list.
Delivery to congressional committees. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and Director of the Bureau of ATF.
To amend the Accounting and Auditing Act of 1950 to provide for the audit, by the Comptroller General, of the Internal Revenue Service and of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That section 117 of the Accounting and Auditing Act of 1950 (31 U.S.C. 67) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection: "(d)(1) The Comptroller General shall make, under such rules and regulations as he shall prescribe, audits of the Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms of the Department of the Treasury: Provided, That such audits shall not affect the finality of findings or decisions of the Secretary of the Treasury or his delegate under section 6406 of the Internal Revenue Code. "(2) For the purposes of, and to the extent necessary in, making the audits required by paragraph (1) of this subsection, representatives of the General Accounting Office— " (A) shall, to the extent provided by, and subject to the requirements imposed by, section 6103 of such Code but notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, have access to returns and return information (as defined by section 6103(b) of such Code); and "(B) shall, notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, have access to all other books, accounts, financial records, reports, files, papers, things, and property belonging to or in use by the Internal Revenue Service or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms: Provided, That no officer or employee of the General Accounting Office shall, except as otherwise expressly provided by law, divulge or make known in any manner whatever to any person, other than another officer or employee of such office whose official duties or responsibilities require such disclosure, any information described in clause (B) in a form which can be associated with, or otherwise identify, directly or indirectly, a particular taxpayer. Any such officer or employee who makes a disclosure in violation of this proviso shall be subject to the penalties provided by law. " (3) The Comptroller General shall, from time to time, but not less often than once every six months, designate in writing the name and title of each officer and employee of the General Accounting Office who, pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (2) of this subsection, is to have access to tax returns and tax return information, or any information described in clause (B) of such paragraph (2), in a form which can be associated with or otherwise identify, directly or indirectly, a particular taxpayer. Each such written designation, or a certified copy thereof, promptly shall be delivered to, the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, the Committee on Finance of the Senate, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Committee on Government Operations of the House of Representatives, the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
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