§ 301.7624-1. Reimbursement to State and local law enforcement agencies.

For purposes of this paragraph (b), information includes, but is not limited to, tax years of violations, aliases, addresses, social security numbers and/or employer identification numbers, financial data (bank accounts, assets, etc.) and their location, and any documentation that substantiates allegations concerning tax liability (books and records) and its location.

A local police department's narcotics division has been gathering information on a suspected local drug dealer for approximately six months. Because this person is very cautious when handling narcotics, the local police have been unsuccessful in catching this person in possession of drugs. Rather than drop the case, the narcotics detective turns over to the local IRS Criminal Investigation Division (CID) office information concerning this person. At the time the information is furnished, the Service is unaware of this person's suspected involvement in drugs and has no reason to suspect that this person's Federal income tax returns are incorrect. Upon examination of this person's returns for three open years, the Service determines that additional Federal income taxes and civil penalties of approximately $20,000 per year are due because of unreported income from drug dealing. Because the taxpayer was not under examination and was not reasonably anticipated to have been examined prior to receipt of the information, the Service will consider that the information furnished by the local police department substantially contributed to the recovery of approximately $60,000 in taxes with respect to illegal drug activities.

Assume the same facts as example 1 except that at the time the information is turned over to the Service, the Service was already aware of the extent of this person's involvement in drug dealing, either through information developed in the course of examinations of other taxpayers or through information received from other sources, and had already selected this person's returns for examination although the person had not yet been contacted by the Service. In this case, the information provided by the local police department did not substantially contribute to the recovery of taxes from this person because the information was already known to the Service.

A state or local police officer is conducting ordinary traffic patrol. The officer stops a vehicle for speeding and reckless driving. The officer recognizes the driver as a known narcotics dealer. In the vehicle is a brief case containing $75,000 in cash, but no trace of narcotics is found. The driver claims the cash was won in a high stakes poker game. The officer arrests the driver for traffic violations and takes the briefcase into custody for safe keeping. The local police department cannot seize the money because they cannot tie it to a narcotics transaction. Instead, they immediately inform the local CID office of their find. At the time this information is furnished to the Service, there is an unpaid assessed liability of $300,000 in Federal taxes and penalties owed by the dealer with respect to illegal drug activities that the Service has been unable to collect. Therefore, the Service immediately seizes the $75,000 in cash in partial payment of the tax liability. The Service will consider that the information furnished by the police department substantially contributed to the recovery of $75,000 in taxes with respect to drug related activities.

Through information furnished by a reliable informant, a local police department learns that a known racketeer and suspected drug dealer maintains a second set of books and records in a safe at home. The local police obtain a search warrant and find a set of books revealing that this person has been using a legitimate business operation to launder money derived from both prostitution and drug dealing. At the time these records are turned over to the local CID office, the taxpayer is already under examination for tax evasion. However, based on the information contained in this second set of books, the Service is able to collect additional taxes and civil penalties in the amount of $1 million in connection with these illegal activities. The Service will consider that this information substantially contributed to the recovery of $1 million in taxes with respect to money laundering in connection with illegal drug activities because, even though the taxpayer was already under examination, the information provided by the local police would normally not have been discovered by the Service in the course of an ordinary investigation.