Hello Police State!
While the Obama Administration curtailed its involvement with local police agencies to enforce immigration law and capture criminal aliens, that same administration wishes local cops to help the Internal Revenue Service enforce tax laws, according to testimony given before a panel of U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday.
IRS May Draft Cops to Catch Tax Cheats, Official Tells Senate
Not to mention that identity theft is only aided by not having FATCA and FBAR information restricted as the returns are supposed to be. All the public warnings from government tell you not to disclose personal information – yet we’re to annually share the detailed account information (FBAR soon to be made mandatory as e-filing?) of non-US employers, non-US organizations, non-US citizen accounts with power of attorney (where applicable) and jointly owned non-US spouse accounts. What recourse or notice would we have if that information was compromised? The Patriot Act doesn’t require that the owner of the information be notified if it is shared – so how would one protect oneself? If it was breached, what damages could apply? Who could we appeal it to?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/20/us-usa-tax-idtheft-idUSBRE82J1AU20120320
…..”Nina Olson, the national taxpayer advocate at the IRS, supported some information sharing, but cautioned that once local law enforcement has access to taxpayers’ returns, they could be shared with other people.
Congress should modify the IRS information-sharing prohibition but limit the disclosure of the information for any purpose other than law enforcement, she said.”
and
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/prevent-id-theft-during-tax-season/2012/02/29/gIQAxJ8umR_story.html
When I first read this I thought it was one of those tongue-in-cheek postings. I guess it’s not, as I followed the link. There are so many things wrong with the IRS using local cops to enforce, and then sharing information, that I hardly know where to begin. So, I won’t, or I’ll risk posting a Petros-like rant, and I’m just not nearly as eloquent as he is.
@outragec
I couldn’t believe it at first either but then I saw the same release by two different news organizations.
The IRS stuff just gets crazier and crazier. If you made a movie of this people would say it wasn’t believable.
@omghesstillanamerican and outragec;
You’re so right – is no-one going to rein them in – especially in an election year – first the rash of late returns, computer errors, and identity theft? Then deciding to break long tradition re sharing return information… What will be the tipping point?
“In a move that could spark concerns over personal privacy, the IRS…”
from http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/IRS-Share-Tax-Information-Police-Fight-Fraud-62089-1.html (I’m starting to really love Accounting Today, which is scary – as I never read anything to do with accounting before…..).
The comments below the story recount a preparer’s example of identity theft using the information from someone’s return. What if it was FBAR and FATCA info?
@badger
Accounting Today has been doing some of the best reporting on these issues. I now follow them regularily. Who would of thought that us non Accountants would be reading this stuff?
@omghesstillanamerican Thanks for posting the story.