Hand Over Your Tax Accrual Workpapers: The First Circuit in United States v. Textron Exposes Dual-Purpose Documents to Discovery

On August 13, 2009, the First Circuit in United States v. Textron Inc. held that tax accrual workpapers are not protected from discovery under the attorney work-product privilege. In so doing, the court eviscer-ated the last line of protection for dual-purpose tax documents from the prying eyes of the IRS and opposing parties in litigation.