U.S. Appellate Court Upholds Assistance under French Tax Treaty

On November 7, 2001, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted IRS?s motion to vacate its earlier stay of the enforcement of an IRS summons issued to an individual?s; bank at the request of the French Tax Authority (FTA). Maurek is the subject of an investigation by the FTA concerning his civil liability for French taxes. In the course of its investigation, the FTA requested that the IRS obtain Mazurek?s relevant financial information located in the U.S. pursuant to the U.S. French income tax treaty. After the IRS approved the request, an IRS agent issued a documents to the IRS. Subsequently a U.S. district court granted Mazurek?s motion, finding that enforcement of the summons could result in premature disclosure of Mazurek?s bank records to the French Government. In his opinion for the Circuit, Judge Jacques L. Wiener concluded that the IRS met the four facts in U.S. v. Powell, and concluded that Mazurek has not established that the summons was an abuse of the judicial process.