Don Nickles: “recent Congressional oversight of the Internal Revenue Service has revealed an agency which has virtually limitless…”

“recent Congressional oversight of the Internal Revenue Service has revealed an agency which has virtually limitless power to enforce the tax code. One aspect of this power is the ability of the IRS to use its summons authority to force taxpayers to turn over books, papers, records, or other data in the course of an audit. Recently, the IRS has started to use its administrative summons power to gain access to the source code for computer software products. Source code for software is a human-readable form of computer language written by software programmers, and it contains all the ``tricks of the trade'' which a programmer uses to ultimately make the software product do its job. After a programmer writes the source code, it is ``compiled'' into machine-readable form called executable code or object code. If the software is being sold or otherwise distributed to customers, the executable code is copied onto diskettes or CD-ROM's for the customers' use. The IRS has used its summons power to obtain computer software source code in several different audit situations.”