Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Finance
Committee Republicans are demanding an investigation into the apparent massive
leak of more than 15 years of legally protected, personal taxpayer information
from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to the media outlet ProPublica. In a letter to the Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration (TIGTA), the senators note the nature of the information
suggests it came directly from the IRS, constituting a serious breach of
privacy and criminal violation of tax law.
They also highlight this privacy breach comes at a time when the
Administration is proposing to increase the amount of data collected by the IRS
from checking, savings, and other accounts of almost every taxpayer.
From
the letter:
ProPublica’s
description of the data and the nature of the information published strongly
suggests that the information originated from within the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS). If this is true, this
constitutes a serious breach of privacy and is a criminal violation of our tax
laws. It would be one of the most
significant and widespread breaches in the agency’s history and considerably
damages the foundational bedrock of our tax system, including American
taxpayers’ confidence that the IRS will keep their personal information
confidential.
The
apparent massive leak of more than 15 years of legally protected personal
taxpayer information that ended up in the hands of ProPublica demands immediate
and vigorous investigation and prosecution of anyone who played any role in
violating laws protecting taxpayer information or otherwise illegally obtaining
or providing any such information.
The
American people deserve a thorough, independent investigation into how this
information came to be published to understand how and why confidential
information is apparently being leaked or obtained from the IRS, to find those
responsible, and to criminally prosecute where warranted.
The letter, signed by all fourteen
Finance Committee Republican members, can be accessed HERE or below.
Dear
Inspector General George:
We
request that your office immediately investigate the apparent recent egregious
leak of private individual taxpayer information from the IRS to determine its
scope, legal issues that could arise, and how the IRS protects personal
identifiable information from breach and political or other improper
purposes.
On
the morning of June 8, 2021, ProPublica published an article titled, “The
Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest
Avoid Income Tax.” The article states
that “ProPublica has obtained a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax
returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, covering more than 15
years.” ProPublica’s description of the
data and the nature of the information published strongly suggests that the information
originated from within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). If this is true, this constitutes a serious
breach of privacy and is a criminal violation of our tax laws. It would be one of the most significant and
widespread breaches in the agency’s history and considerably damages the foundational
bedrock of our tax system, including American taxpayers’ confidence that the
IRS will keep their personal information confidential.
Unfortunately,
this would not be the first time that confidential taxpayer information held by
the IRS has been disclosed or been misused.
In 2012, ProPublica obtained confidential pending applications for
tax-exempt status originally submitted to the IRS; and, again in 2013,
ProPublica obtained applications or documentation for 31 groups, including some
that had not yet been approved, meaning that they were not supposed to be made
public. On May 14, 2013, TIGTA released
a report detailing that inappropriate criteria were used to identify tax-exempt
applications for review. In that report,
TIGTA highlighted that “[e]arly in Calendar Year 2010, the IRS began using
inappropriate criteria to identify organizations applying for tax-exempt status
to review for indications of significant political campaign intervention.”
The
purposeful release by IRS employees of confidential taxpayer information and
the IRS’s inappropriate targeting of select Section 501(c) organizations less
than a decade ago was unacceptable, violated the public’s trust in the fairness
and secrecy of the tax system, and damaging to the integrity of tax
administration. The apparent massive
leak of more than 15 years of legally protected personal taxpayer information
that ended up in the hands of ProPublica demands immediate and vigorous
investigation and prosecution of anyone who played any role in violating laws
protecting taxpayer information or otherwise illegally obtaining or providing
any such information.
This
most recent publication of taxpayer data is especially concerning in light of the
Administration’s proposal to provide the IRS with a massive amount of
unprecedented mandatory funding aimed partly at mandating collection of additional
private and personal information from everyday Americans through financial institutions,
including detailed information about their checking and savings accounts.
The
IRS’s demonstrated history of failing to keep confidential data safe, and what
appears to be a massive IRS data breach that facilitated ProPublica’s publication
of protected taxpayer information to provide politicized advocacy for targeting
certain taxpayers, is unacceptable and should be strongly condemned. The American people deserve a thorough,
independent investigation into how this information came to be published to
understand how and why confidential information is apparently being leaked or
obtained from the IRS, to find those responsible, and to criminally prosecute where
warranted.
For
these reasons, Congress must know that IRS systems are secure and that personal
individual and business tax information is secure from threats, both internal
and external, to violations of taxpayer privacy rights. TIGTA’s investigation and examination must be
thorough, including close scrutiny of any porous elements at IRS that could
allow leaks, external unauthorized access to personal information, or external
researchers who the IRS hires for special projects and provides access to
confidential taxpayer information, especially if any have tax-related political
agendas.
Congress
and the American people have a right to know how and why it appears that confidential
information was allegedly obtained or leaked from the IRS and how their
information will be used and protected moving forward. We ask that TIGTA provide Members of the
Finance Committee with regularly scheduled updates and briefings on the
progress of your investigation.
Sincerely,
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