26 U.S.C. § 7525
Section 7525 · Confidentiality privileges relating to taxpayer communications
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 38 court decisions — leading case Cavallaro v. United States (2002)
Most recently applied in Taylor Lohmeyer Law Firm v. United States (April 2020)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(1) General rule
With respect to tax advice, the same common law protections of confidentiality which apply to a communication between a taxpayer and an attorney shall also apply to a communication between a taxpayer and any federally authorized tax practitioner to the extent the communication would be considered a privileged communication if it were between a taxpayer and an attorney.
(2) Limitations
Paragraph (1) may only be asserted in—
(A) any noncriminal tax matter before the Internal Revenue Service; and
(B) any noncriminal tax proceeding in Federal court brought by or against the United States.
(3) Definitions
For purposes of this subsection—
(A) Federally authorized tax practitioner
The term “federally authorized tax practitioner” means any individual who is authorized under Federal law to practice before the Internal Revenue Service if such practice is subject to Federal regulation under section 330 of title 31, United States Code.
(B) Tax advice
The term “tax advice” means advice given by an individual with respect to a matter which is within the scope of the individual's authority to practice described in subparagraph (A).
The privilege under subsection (a) shall not apply to any written communication which is—
(1) between a federally authorized tax practitioner and—
(A) any person,
(B) any director, officer, employee, agent, or representative of the person, or
(C) any other person holding a capital or profits interest in the person, and
(2) in connection with the promotion of the direct or indirect participation of the person in any tax shelter (as defined in section 6662(d)(2)(C)(ii)).
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
2004—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 108–357 amended heading and text of subsec. (b) generally. Prior to amendment, text read as follows: “The privilege under subsection (a) shall not apply to any written communication between a federally authorized tax practitioner and a director, shareholder, officer, or employee, agent, or representative of a corporation in connection with the promotion of the direct or indirect participation of such corporation in any tax shelter (as defined in section 6662(d)(2)(C)(iii)).”
Effective Date of 2004 Amendment
Pub. L. 108–357, title VIII, §813(b), Oct. 22, 2004, 118 Stat. 1581, provided that: “The amendment made by this section [amending this section] shall apply to communications made on or after the date of the enactment of this Act [Oct. 22, 2004].”
Effective Date
Pub. L. 105–206, title III, §3411(c), July 22, 1998, 112 Stat. 751, provided that: “The amendments made by this section [enacting this section] shall apply to communications made on or after the date of the enactment of this Act [July 22, 1998].”