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Purpose: This IRM section defines and explains policy statements. This IRM section also provides instructions for preparing, reviewing, approving and issuing policy statements.

Audience: The audience for this IRM section includes those who are responsible for creating, revising and rescinding IRS policy statements:

Policy Owner: Director, Strategy and Business Solutions (SBS), Research Applied Analytics and Statistics (RAAS).

Program Owner: The Office of Servicewide Policy, Directives and Electronic Resources (SPDER) within SBS - RAAS is the program office responsible for overseeing the internal management document (IMD) process and providing guidance. Each business unit is responsible for establishing an internal process for managing their procedures based on these Servicewide processes. This includes designating an IMD coordinator and team to oversee the process within their respective business units.

Primary Stakeholders: All organizations and business units that use, manage, own, or issue policy statements approved by the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

Contact Information: Email *SPDER to recommend changes or make any other suggestions for this IRM section.

Policy statements serve to communicate the IRS¡¯s perspectives on significant values and principles. These "IRS policies" govern and guide IRS personnel in the administration of the IRS.

The words Servicewide policy should not be used to designate an IRS position unless a policy statement has been signed by the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue on the matter. Procedures established in conformance with approved Servicewide policies should be designated as procedures, instructions, guidelines, positions, etc

Policies established by the Department of the Treasury or other executive branch offices, as well as those from the legislative and judicial branches,are not designated as ¡°IRS Policy Statements.¡±

Additionally, policy statements do not cover areas where basic decisions are proclaimed by another government agency or are settled by law. An exception could be made, for purposes of clarity and understanding, to combine IRS policy with other agency policies if they are so interrelated that omitting those policies originating outside of the IRS might cause an erroneous or misleading impression.

Policy statements publicize views concerning an important value of the IRS. The designation of any item as an ¡åIRS Policy¡å concerns an issue of sufficient importance to warrant consideration, approval and signature by the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

Policy statements can form the basis for procedures or instructions in the IRM. Policy statements are not, however, the appropriate vehicle to convey:

The Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue reviews, approves and signs all new, revised, and rescinded Servicewide policy statements. Once signed and approved, the policy statement is immediately effective and supersedes any preceding policy statements.

The only policies which can be issued as policy statements are those initiated by the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue, or those initiated and submitted for their approval by:

Business unit senior executives are responsible for Servicewide policy statements within their organization and clearing them through impacted offices, the Office of Chief Counsel, the originating office¡¯s senior executives, and then the Office of SPDER, prior to submitting to the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner for approval and signature.

Responsible business unit senior executives must review their policy statements annually to ensure the content in the policy statement is current, applicable and valid. This annual review includes consulting among other impacted executives concerning proposals for new, revised or rescinded policy statements when necessary.

Policy statements contain specific content and follow a specified format. Refer to IRM 1.11.3.3.1 , Creating, Revising and Rescinding Policy Statements, and IRM 11.3.3.2 , Servicewide Policy Statement Content.

Policy statements are numbered sequentially, according to the IRS business process (conforming to the IRM).

Policy statements are documented in IRM 1.2.1, Servicewide Policy Statements. The approval, revision and rescinded date will be printed with each policy statement

If a policy statement is to be removed permanently, the policy statement must be rescinded through review, approval and signature following the procedures outlined in IRM 1.11.3.3.1, Creating, Revising and Rescinding Policy Statements.

The originating office must determine how the changes impact other documents, processes, programs, and inform the organization owners. These changes could require updates to all related IRM sections to maintain overall consistency.

If there is an agreement to transfer a policy statement to a different business unit, contact *SPDER to provide confirmation of the transfer of policy statement ownership to another business unit. This email must include the reason(s) for the transfer and the name(s) of the business unit senior executives(s) agreeing to the transfer.

Recently approved policy statements are posted to the Servicewide Policy Statement Listing web page and the FOIA Library¡¯s Recently Approved Policy Statements until published in IRM 1.2.1, Servicewide Policy Statements. IRM 1.2.1 is updated on a semi-annual schedule: January and July by SPDER.

A list of all active policy statements organized by business owner and number can be found on the Servicewide Policy Statement Listing web page.

Before starting the formal clearance process, the author must send the draft policy statement to *SPDER with a courtesy copy to their Internal Management Documents (IMD) Coordinator for an informal review.

The author must use Form 2061, Document Clearance Record, to document the review and assessment(s) of:

The author must identify affected offices in accordance with IRM 1.11.9.3 , Identifying Reviewers.

To locate program offices outside of the business unit, authors must use the Internal Management Documents (IMD) Contacts List.

Authors must allow 30 calendar days for reviewers to complete their review and assessment. Internal and external reviewers will perform reviews simultaneously during the 30-day timeframe.

In rare instances where an expedited clearance review is needed, authors must consider the following:

Chief Counsel will complete their review sequentially. After all affected offices and specialized reviewers have completed their review, the author must consolidate the responses and revise the policy statement before submitting the updated version for Chief Counsel¡¯s review.

In situations where a reviewer does not concur with the new or revised policy statement, refer to IRM 1.11.9.9, Resolving Disagreements.

After addressing and incorporating comments and feedback from all reviewers including Chief Counsel, the author will send the new, revised, or rescinded policy statement to management and the business unit senior executive for review and approval.

After the policy statement clearance package has been reviewed by the business unit senior executive and the chief or director reporting directly to the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue (if applicable), the author will send the complete policy statement package to the IMD coordinator. The IMD coordinator will perform a final review and forward the package to *SPDER. Refer to IRM 1.11.3.4.3, Final Clearance Package for SPDER Review.

Servicewide policy statements must be cleared through all required reviewers and submitted to SPDER within one year of the date the official clearance package was initiated. Clearance packages received in SPDER after one year will be returned to the business unit with a request to clear the policy statement again.

After the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner has approved and signed the policy statement, SPDER will post a PDF of the signed document to the Search Interim Guidance page, the Servicewide Policy Statement Listing, and request for Online Services to post the policy statement to the IRS FOIA Library Recently Approved Policy Statements.

SPDER will:

In very limited situations, authors may request modifications to a published policy statement for editorial changes that do not change the meaning of the content. The streamlined clearance process will be used to make updates to policy statements.

Editorial changes are limited to:

For editorial changes, forward the following documents to *SPDER for consideration:

After review and agreement, SPDER will update the policy statement in IRM 1.2.1, Servicewide Policy Statements, according to the semi-annual schedule (January/July) and will note the editorial correction in the IRM¡¯s manual transmittal.

The effective date and the revision number of the published policy statement will remain unchanged.

SPDER will retain the files and send them to the IRS Historical Research Library for record retention and documentation.