IRS plan would allow sale of tax data to marketers

[UpInArms]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060321/BUSINESS07/603210412/1020/BUSINESS

PHILADELPHIA -- The Internal Revenue Service is quietly moving to loosen the once-inviolable privacy of federal income-tax returns.

If it succeeds, accountants and other tax-return preparers for the first time would be able to sell information from individual returns -- or even entire returns -- to marketers and data brokers.

The change is in a set of proposed rules the Treasury Department and the IRS published in the Dec. 8 Federal Register, where the official notice labeled them "not a significant regulatory action."

IRS officials portray the changes as housecleaning needed to update outmoded regulations adopted before it began accepting returns electronically. The proposed rules, which would become effective 30 days after a final version is published, would require a tax preparer to obtain written consent before selling tax information.

Critics call the changes a dangerous breach in personal and financial privacy. They say the requirement for signed consent would prove meaningless for many taxpayers, especially those hurriedly reviewing stacks of documents before a filing deadline.

<snip>

The IRS announced the proposal in a news release the day before the notice was published, headlined: "IRS Issues Proposed Regulations to Safeguard Taxpayer Information."

...more...

[MadHound]

1. What the bloody hell!

This is insane! Gee, think that ID theft is bad now, wait until the IRS starts selling your returns. And notice, they tried to slip this through on the sly, in a notice with a doublespeak title that Orwell would be envious of, and labeling the changes as "housecleaning needed to update outmoded regulations". And judging from this misadministration's ongoing actions, I suppose that privacy is indeed an outmoded ideal for them:grr:

Every single day, these assholes hit us with another outrage. When will it end?

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. I do my own taxes, but...

Nowadays, you are pretty much forced to use a third party to do an electronic submission, and the IRS is starting to accept only electronic submissions. My fear is that every single third party submission service will require, as part of their ToS, that you consent to having your info sold. In other words, you will not be allowed to file unless you compromise your privacy and identity.

:scared:

[kurth]

3. "IRS Issues Proposed Regulations to Safeguard Taxpayer Information"

Another misleading headline from the Bush government.