Rev. Proc. 55-1

SECTION 1. PURPOSE.

The purpose of this Revenue Procedure is to announce the establishment of a new policy of the Internal Revenue Service with respect to the publication of internal practices and procedures for the information of the public, prescribing the form of their publication, and fixing the authority and responsibility for the initiation, coordination and issuance of the prescribed public document.

SEC. 2. SCOPE.

The policy set forth herein shall not apply to (a) interpretations of substantive tax law publishable as Revenue Rulings or (b) the regulations (including Treasury Decisions) prescribed by the Commissioner with the approval of the Secretary pursuant to and for the enforcement of the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. All other statements of practices, procedure or regulations come within the scope of this Revenue Procedure.

SEC. 3. POLICY.

It shall be the policy to publish for public information all statements of practice and procedure issued primarily for internal use, and, hence, appearing in internal management documents, which affect rights or duties of taxpayers or other members of the public under the Internal Revenue Code and related statutes. This policy, however, is not intended to preclude the publication of a Revenue Procedure (see section 4.01) based on an internal management document which contains information not necessarily affecting rights or duties of the public but which should be a matter of public knowledge.

SEC. 4. FORM OF PUBLICATION.

.01 The publication of internal practices and procedures for public information in accordance with the policy stated above will be in the form of Revenue Procedures (abbreviated as "Rev. Proc.") in the Internal Revenue Bulletin. The contents of such Revenue Procedures will be published in the Federal Register when such publication is required under the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946.

.02 IR-Mimeographs, IR-Circulars and other internal management documents issued hereafter will not be released or distributed to the public as has been the practice in the past. Also the practice of converting IR-Mimeographs and IR-Circulars into Revenue Rulings will be discontinued.

SEC. 5. RESPONSIBILITIES.

.01 The Assistant Commissioners and the Chief Counsel are responsible for determining whether procedures and practices prescribed in internal management documents prepared by their offices should be published as Revenue Procedures and for the initiation and content of such Revenue Procedures.

.02 The Assistant Commissioner (Technical) is responsible for administering the system for the publication of Revenue Procedures and their filing with the Federal Register, except that the filing of Revenue Procedures on matters pertaining to functions of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division will be the responsibility of the Assistant Commissioner (Operations).

SEC. 6. EFFECT ON THE OTHER DOCUMENTS.

.01 This Revenue Procedure amends Revenue Ruling 2, C. B. 1953-1, 484, and Revenue Ruling 212, C. B. 1953-2, 449.

SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE.

This Revenue Procedure is effective July 13, 1955.