Title 29

SECTION 1473.5

1473.5 Public access to guidance documents.

§ 1473.5 Public access to guidance documents.

The Office of General Counsel shall:

(a) Oversee the creation of a guidance portal on the agency's website;

(b) Ensure all effective guidance documents, identified by a unique identifier as described in § 1473.4(b)(4), are on the guidance portal in a single, searchable, indexed database, and available to the public;

(c) Note on the agency's guidance portal that guidance documents lack the force and effect of law, except as authorized by law or as incorporated into a contract;

(d) Maintain and publish on the Service's guidance portal a means for the public to comment electronically on any guidance documents that are subject to the notice-and-comment procedures, and to submit requests electronically for issuance, reconsideration, modification, or rescission of guidance documents in accordance with § 1473.11;

(e) Include on the agency's guidance portal the date on which all guidance documents were posted to the website, and a hyperlink to all the guidance documents;

(f) Receive and address complaints from the public that the Service is not following the requirements of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Good Guidance Bulletin, or that the Service is improperly treating a guidance document as a binding requirement;

(g) Note on the agency's guidance portal that any guidance document not posted on the guidance portal is rescinded, and that neither the agency nor a party may cite, use, or rely on any guidance document that is not posted on the guidance portal, except to establish historical facts; and

(h) Include on the agency's guidance portal a link to this subpart.

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