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Op-Ed: Your information is not safe with
the IRS
[The Center Square] Daniel Savickas |
Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
If the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) was a boat, it would be sitting at the bottom of a body of
water somewhere. While this may sound like an improvement, the
unfortunate fact is that the IRS is a leaking, reckless liability for
taxpayers. |
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 Earlier this year, ProPublica released a series of documents on
some of America’s wealthiest individuals. These records and documents contained
the sensitive personal tax and income information about these individuals and
amounted to a gross violation of privacy. It should be noted they also showed
absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing. These records were leaked illegally from
the IRS to ProPublica, presumably to drive political sympathies for President
Joe Biden’s tax proposals. Despite Attorney General Merrick Garland making it a
“priority,” the federal government has not identified the source of the leak.
From 2013 to 2015, the American people discovered that the IRS
routinely targeted organizations and individuals for heightened scrutiny due to
their political beliefs. The agency had systemically subjected right-leaning
organizations for audits, denial of tax-exempt status, and other processes that
cost both time and money. Then-IRS Commissioner Lois Lerner resigned over the
scandal.
Things have not gotten better for the IRS since. In a report published last week
by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA),
the IRS was found to have a severe problem when it comes to sanitizing their
computers. No, this does not mean that the IRS is disobeying COVID-19 protocols
and leaving a dirty work station. It is, once again, an indication that the IRS
is playing fast and loose with the private information of the American people.
According to the IRS, the sanitation process is meant to “protect the
confidentiality of sensitive information” and so that “unauthorized individuals
[cannot] attempt to reconstruct data and gain access to sensitive data from
media that has not been properly sanitized.” According to TIGTA’s own report,
such failures are reason enough to create a lack of trust in the IRS. It also
noted that unauthorized disclosures can often cause harm to the individuals who
are the subject of such disclosures.
In short, the IRS has failed time and time again to prove themselves an
effective steward of taxpayer information. At times, their stewardship has gone
beyond neglectful to outright malfeasance. While the American people have seen
this play out a number of times, elected officials have decided to ignore the
issue. Unfortunately, this is no longer a viable option if we want to avoid the
problem becoming much worse.
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The Biden administration and congressional
Democrats plan to cover the costs of the trillions in new spending
by radically increasing tax revenue. This comes in two planks. The
first is to undo the 2017 tax cuts and increase the income tax on
corporations and those making over $400,000 a year. The second is to
emphasize compliance and empower the IRS to crack down on potential
tax code violations. This second plank is
particularly concerning given the agency’s record. Enhanced
enforcement for the IRS has historically meant political targeting.
Enhanced enforcement will also entail the collection of more records
through typical means and extra audits. These are the same type of
records with which the IRS cannot be trusted to safeguard against
data leaks or hacks – according to the Treasury Department’s own
investigation. Further, it does not even take hacks anymore to let
information go public. Clearly people on the inside are sending this
information to media outlets.
 Any tax plan that relies on the trustworthiness of the IRS is simply
one that is doomed to failure. The current Democratic tax agenda –
miserable though it may be for myriad reasons – should be dead in
the water for this reason alone. The increased scope of authority
given to the IRS would open up millions of Americans to targeted
abuse and violations of their privacy through hacks and leaks.
Instead of delegating more power and resources to the IRS, Congress
needs to crack down on rogue actors within the agency. Before anyone
touches the tax code itself, Congress needs to demonstrate it is
ready, willing, and able to address these abuses. To this point,
they have failed. This is why a new IRS scandal or shortcoming fails
to surprise anyone enough to be front-page news anymore. The
failings of the IRS are, in part, the failures of a legislative
branch that has, to this point, been unwilling to provide needed
oversight. This sanitation flub ought to be no
different. Instead of trusting that the IRS will take TIGTA’s
recommendations under consideration and fix the problem, Congress
needs to ensure it gets done. Rigid benchmarks are necessary and
failure to hit them should result in the dismissal of top IRS
employees. The IRS is not a trustworthy organization. They should be
treated as such until proven otherwise.
Daniel Savickas is government affairs manager at the
Taxpayers Protection Alliance. |
