What counts as a disclosure, and why paste is one

1 · Learn the move · Context + audience

The statute does not say 'send'. It says disclose. s. 7216 makes it a crime for a preparer to disclose tax return information other than as the regulations allow [P], and s. 6713 adds a civil penalty for each one [P]. Return information is wider than the return: a name beside a figure, a form and a year with a client attached, the facts of a client's situation as they told them to you. Whether typing those facts into a general-purpose AI tool is a disclosure has no IRS guidance yet; the one published analysis says it is, because the text leaves your control the moment you press enter [S]. That is the whole reason this desk ships first. The habit is not 'never use the tool'. It is: before anything goes in, ask who can see it, what the plan does with it, and whether what you are about to paste could identify the client on its own. Three answers you can defend, in writing, before the question is asked. Draft copy, not legal advice. Reviewed by: nobody yet.

Before I paste anything about a client, answer three questions about the tool I am using, from the plan terms I paste below: (1) who at the vendor can see what I send, (2) whether it is used to train a model, and (3) how long it is kept. Quote the line from the terms that answers each, or write [NEEDS: the line from the terms] if the terms do not say. Then tell me, in one sentence each, which of these three facts I should write into my firm's AI policy. Do not tell me whether pasting is allowed; that is not yours to decide.