I got around to listening to Dave Champion's radio show and he cited 44 USC 3506(c)(1)(B)(iii) for saying that the 1040 has to say on its face all of that PRA information. Actually, the law says that the govt agency should evaluate its forms to ....
Quote:
(B) ensure that each information collection ...
(iii) informs the person receiving the collection of information of:
(I) the reasons the information is being collected;
(II) the way the information is to be used;
(III) an estimate, to the extent practicable, of the burden {= time devoted to responding} of the collection;
(IV) whether responses to the collection of information are voluntary, required to obtain a benefit, or mandatory; and
(V) the fact that an agency may not conduct or sponso, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid control number.....
|
While the OMB number has to be "displayed" -- which usually means it is printed on the front page of the form itself -- the other PRA notification merely has to be conveyed in a way that will "inform" the person receiving it. The OMB regs - adopted ten years ago and never challenged - permits that boiler plate to be published in an accompanying instruction book, which is how the IRS does it for the 1040. No requirement that all that bulky information (just the time estimates for completing the 1040 and its various schedules cover a full page of the instruction booklet) must be on the questionnaire form itself.
Again, the OMB, whose employees get the same 1040 that the rest of us do, has not expressed dissatisfaction with the IRS's compliance, so it won't be easy for a defendant to persuade a court that the IRS is violating the PRA.
