Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Civil Division; D.C. Court of Appeals

Tax Analysts, et al. v. District of Columbia, et al.

Case No. 2020 CA 001999 B · Appeal No. 21-CV-0031 · FOIA litigation for disclosure of Office of Tax and Revenue private letter rulings

Case Summary

In October 2019, Tax Analysts and reporter Aaron Davis filed a D.C. Freedom of Information Act request seeking 24 private letter rulings issued by the Office of Tax and Revenue between 2016 and 2019. The District refused, claiming the rulings were entirely protected by the tax-secrecy statute, D.C. Code § 47-4406.

Result

On July 27, 2023, the D.C. Court of Appeals reversed the Superior Court’s grant of summary judgment to the District and remanded the case. The appellate court held that private letter rulings are not categorically exempt: they may contain non-taxpayer-specific legal analysis that must be disclosed if reasonably segregable from protected tax information.

Why it matters

The decision rejected the District’s claim that OTR legal interpretations are “secret law.” It aligned D.C. with the federal IRS and most state revenue departments, which publish private letter rulings with identifying details redacted. On remand, the Superior Court was directed to conduct an in camera review to determine what portions of the 24 rulings could be released.

Document Record

Original filings and extracts produced during litigation. PDFs are the source documents; text extracts were generated for research and accessibility.

Document Type Filed / Date Court / Party Original Text
Reversed And Remanded Opinion July 27, 2023 D.C. Court of Appeals — per curiam judgment; opinion by Senior Judge Glickman PDF TXT
23_Decision Opinion January 13, 2021 Superior Court — granting District’s summary judgment motion PDF TXT
01_Remand order Order August 21, 2023 Superior Court — post-remand assignment to Judge Rigsby PDF TXT
BRIEF - DC Brief June 14, 2021 D.C. Court of Appeals — appellee District of Columbia PDF TXT
Brief (plaintiffs) Brief March 2021 (estimated) D.C. Court of Appeals — appellants Tax Analysts / Aaron Davis DOCX TXT
BRIEF - TA reply brief Brief July 2, 2021 D.C. Court of Appeals — appellants’ reply brief PDF TXT
Joint appendix_final Appendix March 9, 2021 D.C. Court of Appeals — joint appendix PDF TXT
22_OTR reply on in camera review Reply December 18, 2020 Superior Court — defendant District of Columbia reply PDF TXT
08_Vaughn response_July 15 2024 Response July 15, 2024 Superior Court — plaintiffs’ response to OTR’s revised Vaughn index PDF TXT
6.27.24 Tax Analyst Praecipe Praecipe July 1, 2024 Superior Court — plaintiffs PDF TXT
Tax Analysts Praecipe Amended Vaughn Index Praecipe April 8, 2024 Superior Court — District of Columbia PDF TXT
Tax Analysts Ex. A- July 1 Amended Vaughn Index Index July 1, 2024 Superior Court — District’s amended Vaughn index of 24 PLRs PDF TXT
Ex. A- Amended Vaughn Index Index April 8, 2024 Superior Court — District’s amended Vaughn index PDF TXT
Tax Analysts-Facchina affidavit-July 2024 Affidavit July 1, 2024 Superior Court — Bazil Facchina declaration for District PDF TXT
Tax Analysts-FOIA-Facchina Declaration Declaration April 5, 2024 Superior Court — Bazil Facchina declaration PDF TXT
Tax Analysts-Facchina affidavit attachment Exhibit June 27, 2024 Superior Court — revised redacted PLR pages PDF TXT
08B_PLRS-107 pages with pagination Records April 8, 2024 Superior Court — plaintiffs’ appendix of redacted PLR pages PDF TXT
Tax Analysts-FOIA-DC OTR redacted rulings-final Records March 19, 2024 Superior Court — OTR redacted ruling samples PDF TXT
Vaughn appendix Appendix April 20, 2024 Superior Court — Vaughn-index appendix PDF TXT
08A_Annotation to revised Vaughn index Annotation July 12, 2024 Superior Court — annotation to revised Vaughn index PDF TXT
Amended Redactions- January 2025 Redactions January 2025 Superior Court — updated redaction submission PDF TXT
08C_May 17 transcript Transcript May 17, 2024 Superior Court — hearing transcript before Judge Matini PDF TXT
Receipt_Vaughn response Receipt April 22, 2024 Superior Court — eFile receipt for Vaughn response PDF TXT
Calendar_Notice Notice January 25, 2022 D.C. Court of Appeals — notice of calendaring PDF TXT

The 24 Private Letter Rulings at Issue

OTR identified 24 PLRs responsive to the October 8, 2019 FOIA request. The following list is drawn from the District’s July 1, 2024 amended Vaughn index. Dates are the ruling dates; topics are the tax areas identified in the index.

Jan. 28, 2016 — Sales and Use Tax
Feb. 3, 2016 — Sales and Use Tax
Feb. 11, 2016 — QHTC Tax
Feb. 19, 2016 — Franchise Tax
Feb. 25, 2016 — Sales and Use Tax
Nov. 3, 2016 — Franchise Tax
Jan. 26, 2017 — Sales and Use Tax
Feb. 23, 2017 — Sales and Use Tax
May 9, 2017 — Sales and Use Tax
July 5, 2017 — QHTC Tax
July 7, 2017 — Sales and Use Tax
Sept. 1, 2017 — Sales and Use Tax
Mar. 20, 2018 — Sales and Use Tax
May 10, 2018 — Sales and Use Tax
June 28, 2018 — QHTC Tax
Aug. 2, 2018 — Sales and Use Tax
Oct. 12, 2018 — Individual Income Tax
Dec. 7, 2018 — Estate Tax
Feb. 14, 2019 — QHTC Tax
Feb. 21, 2019 — Sales and Use Tax
Feb. 28, 2019 — Franchise Tax
Apr. 12, 2019 — Sales and Use Tax
July 11, 2019 — Sales and Use Tax
July 15, 2019 — Sales and Use Tax

Full case summary (Markdown) · All text extracts

Disclaimer: This page is a personal research record, not an official court docket. The PDFs are the source documents; the text extracts were generated for searchability and may contain OCR or conversion errors. For the authoritative court record, consult the Superior Court of the District of Columbia or the D.C. Court of Appeals.