By Lisa Lopata, Esq., Checkpoint News
West Virginia has clarified the bar on public disclosure of its Tax Division’s internal audit tools and enforcement methodologies by providing eight non-inclusive categories of protected materials. The old statute contained a single general sentence barring disclosure of return selection standards for examination. (L. 2026, H5653, effective 03/12/2026.)
List of Protected Materials
Under the new statute, the Division cannot be required to disclose:
- audit manuals (for internal bench audits and external field audits), audit and examination guidelines, and audit procedures, guidelines and algorithms;
- personnel training manuals and training materials,
- scoring and risk assessment models used in audit selection;
- audit selection criteria, fraud check materials, thresholds, procedures and methodologies;
- internal policy manuals related to audit and enforcement procedures;
- data analytics models and methodologies used in compliance evaluation;
- procedural workflow documents or other nonpublic resources used by audit personnel; and
- applications for licensure, licenses and other information relating to telemarketer registration.
The audit category applies to internal bench audits and external field audits, and includes sampling methodologies used in auditing, and used in internal and external reviews and examinations of tax returns, tax records and business records, audit trigger thresholds, or assessment trigger thresholds.
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