What He Said To The IRS Didn’t Stay With The IRS.

A man had business dealings in both the United States and Japan. Representatives from the Internal Revenue Service [IRS] and Japan’s National Taxing Authority [NTA] held a meeting in 1996 to discuss the man’s taxes. During that meeting, they disclosed information to each other, but the man knew nothing about the meeting or the disclosures of his tax information. In 1999, the man and his company brought an action against the United States under 26 U.S.C. §7431(d) for wrongful disclosure of his tax returns, which must be kept confidential. The Ninth Circuit held “the statute of limitations begins to run when the plaintiff knows or reasonably should know of the government’s allegedly unauthorized disclosures. We also conclude, in the circumstances presented by this case, that the statute of limitations did not begin to run when the plaintiffs became aware of a pending general investigation that would involve disclosures, but only later when they knew or should have known of the specific disclosures at issue.” Aloe Vera of America v. United States of America (Ninth Cir.; November 15, 2012) 699 F.3d 1153.