Supreme Court says IRS Can Get Your Bank Records Without Telling You

In Polselli v. IRS (5/18/2023), after a revenue agent decided Remo Polselli was underpaying his taxes, the IRS issued a summons for Polselli’s bank records. One summons went to Wells Fargo requesting his wife’s records and records of his company. The IRS did not provide Polselli with notice of the summones, but his banks did. After learning of the summones, Polselli souht to quash them due to the lack of notice.

The district court tossed the case, finding the IRS is not required to provide notice. The Sixth Circuit affirmed that decision. On reaching the Supreme Court, the questionpresented was: “[W]hether the exception to the notice requirement in §7609(c)(2)(D)(i) applies only where a delinquent taxpayer has a legal interest in accounts or records summoned by the IRS under §7602(a). A straightforward reading of the statutory text supplies a ready answer: The notice exception does not contain such a limitation.” Answering the question as it did, the decision was affirmed.