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2 Notice is not a mere formality. In the context of tax administration, it serves an important function. Providing notice ensures that, when the IRS comes calling, the implicated interests are balanced. On one hand, the notice requirement permits the IRS to summon recordkeepers for the information it needs, without imposing overly burdensome procedural hurdles or inviting excessive delay. See, e.g., §7609(a)(2) (allowing the IRS to serve notice by mail); §7609(b)(2) (setting time limitations on filing a motion to quash). On the other hand, notice—and the concomitant right to judicial review—empowers persons whose information is at stake to enlist assistance from the courts, as needed, to prevent the agency from overreaching. §7609(b); see also Tiffany Fine Arts, Inc. v. United States, 469 U. S. 310, 320–321 (1985).

To be sure, Congress has also recognized that there might be situations, particularly in the collection context, where providing notice could frustrate the IRS’s ability to effectively administer the tax laws. For instance, upon receiving notice that the IRS has served a summons, interested persons might move or hide collectable assets, making the agency’s collection efforts substantially harder.

That is where the exception at §7609(c)(2)(D)(i) comes in. In such circumstances, §7609(c)(2)(D)(i) prevents notice from tipping the balance entirely in favor of the delinquent taxpayer, at the expense of the IRS. But, depending on whose information the summons seeks (for example, an innocent third party’s), or the nature of the requested records, it might not be reasonable to conclude that providing notice would frustrate the IRS’s tax-collection goal. And when that is the case, it might unjustifiably tip the scales in the other direction (i.e., entirely in the IRS’s favor) to allow the IRS to proceed without notice just because its delinquency resolution process has entered the collection phase.

In other words, the statute’s balancing of interests indicates that Congress did not give the IRS a blank check, so