Don't Mess With Taxes

 

When we file our tax returns, we’re assured that the information is private. Access to our filing data is limited, and the Internal Revenue Service employees who do get to see our personal information are prevented by law from sharing it.

It is a felony for IRS personnel to gain unauthorized access to taxpayer data. That same legal restrictions apply to IRS contractors. Just ask Charles Littlejohn, a former IRS consultant who last year was sentenced to five years in prison for stealing and sharing Donald Trump’s (and others’) tax data.

The billionaire Elon Musk was one of those others whose tax info was shared. Now Musk wants the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the sort-of government operation that he created, to unrestricted access to the IRS’ database.

Being able to poke around in the IRS Integrated Data Retrieval System as it is known would likely would give Musk and/or his hand-picked staff access to our tax returns, Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, and all the other information we voluntarily share on our 1040 forms each filing season.

Musk says DOGE needs the access to discover “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the “broken system” and fix it.

But a lot of law-abiding taxpayers aren’t so sure. Alarms have been raised by the concerned taxpayers, as well as by many in the private sector tax community, members of Congress, tax policy groups, consumer protection organizations, and IRS workers.

Trump administration officials have clarified, or not depending on your perspective, DOGE’s access. The latest word is that DOGE staff would only access IRS data on a "programmatic level." Subsequently, the Treasury Department agreed to block DOGE’s access to personal taxpayer data at IRS, say they only see anonymized tax data, not individual returns.

That eased fears somewhat, but not completely.

Legal action continues: Meanwhile, a related lawsuit is wending its way through the legal system. The attorneys general of 19 states filed the case that focuses on DOGE’s desired access to the Bureau of Fiscal Services, the Treasury Department's payment system that includes issuing tax refunds as well as dispersing trillions of other federal funding.

So, while we wait for the justice system, this weekend’s Sunday Shout Outs (moved from their regular Saturday slot since the By the Numbers post yesterday had a this-weekend-only focus: the Oscars) is a look at coverage of the DOGE attempt to peruse IRS information.

Elon Musk, DOGE Target IRS Tax Records: Is Your Personal Data at Risk? This article by Kelley R. Taylor for Kiplinger leads off because it cuts right to main question many of us have been asking since DOGE started poking around Uncle Sam’s operations.

Howard Gleckman, senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute, also examines in a post for the organization’s TaxVox blog How DOGE’s Access To IRS Data Puts Taxpayer Information At Risk. One point in Gleckman’s post that caught my eye was his observation that “It is unclear how specific cases of fraud, or even errors, could be identified without an audit of individual returns.”

Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, ranking minority member on the Senate Finance Committee, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, have taken the Capitol Hill lead in expressing concern Over DOGE Access to Legally-Protected Taxpayer Data, Trump Weaponization of IRS Against American Citizens and Businesses.s.

In addition to taxpayer privacy worries, the pair’s Feb. 17 letter to then-acting IRS Commissioner Douglass O-Donnell (who has since retired) said the access request also raises “serious concerns that Elon Musk and his associates are seeking to weaponize government databases containing private bank records and other confidential information to target American citizens and businesses as part of a political agenda.”

Circling back to that Bureau of Fiscal Services lawsuit, attorney Linn F. Freedman’s article for The National Law Review tells us that DOGE Blocked from Access to Department of Treasury Payment Systems. “On February 21, 2025, a federal district court judge from the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction against the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE), access to Treasury Department payment systems, stating access was provided in a “chaotic and haphazard manner,” writes Freedman.

Finally, today’s Sunday Shout Outs close with some advice for folks who are still a little worried about who is getting any type of access to their personal and financial files. Back Up Everything. Even if Elon Musk Isn’t Looking at It write New York Times’ reports Ron Lieber, Tara Siegel Bernard, and J. D. Biersdorfer.

I really didn't mean for these shout outs to possibly put a damper on your weekend, but our tax and financial privacy is a situation that affects us all. And if DOGE wants to watch us, it's only fair that we keep an eye — or all our collective eyes — on it, too!  

You also might find these items of interest:

• IRS emphasizes its commitment to taxpayer privacy
• Securing taxpayer data is the IRS' biggest challenge
• IRS apologizes to billionaire whose tax info was leaked
• Former college student pleads guilty to trying to hack Trump's taxes

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