Talk:Revenue Act of 1926

Returns

"...and ended public access to federal income tax returns."
What does this mean? Excess withheld taxes could not be refunded? If so, then what happened to them? (And, for that matter, to the withholding system...) This needs clarification, and citation. --Xyzzyva (talk) 08:46, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

I will put this on my list of things to look into. I think the reference to "tax return" is a reference to the actual report that you file with the government - not to the tax refund that you might receive.

Under section 6103 of the current Internal Revenue Code, "tax returns" -- the actual reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), are confidential. The general rule is the IRS cannot provide a copy of your 2006 Form 1040 tax return (or give people the essential information on that return) without your permission -- although there are many, many pages of exceptions to that rule. I think maybe what the article might be saying is that the Revenue Act of 1926 was the first law that made the tax returns confidential.

I will check and see if I can find out if this is correct. Yours, Famspear (talk) 15:09, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

OK, a preliminary search indicates that the confidentiality law on tax returns may have pre-dated the Revenue Act of 1926. Stay tuned. Famspear (talk) 15:21, 25 February 2008 (UTC)