How’s this for scary: Identity thieves get hold of your tax return – complete with detailed financial information on you and your dependents – using it to fleece you and ruining your credit in the process.
Is this the latest Internet scam? No, and that’s the really scary part. This nightmare scenario could become real if a rule change proposed by the Internal Revenue Service isn’t stopped. The IRS, for reasons we can’t figure, wants to allow paid tax preparers to sell data from tax returns if they get approval from their customers.
You could easily give such approval without even being aware, given the number of various forms and disclosures you can be asked to sign. And once your information is sold, what assurance do you have that it won’t fall into the wrong hands?
Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, along with members of Congress, privacy advocates and consumer groups, are speaking out against this ridiculous change. That’s good, because the IRS has done a remarkable job keeping it hidden from public view.
Originally posted in the Federal Register on Dec. 8, the new rule wasn’t even mentioned in an IRS press release detailing other changes. In fact, the title of the press release was decidedly Orwellian: “IRS issues proposed regulations to safeguard taxypayer information.”
“Safeguard”? How about “Broadcast to the world”?
McKenna, who a little more than a year into his term has established himself as a champion of privacy rights, says the proposed change “turns current taxpayer privacy protections on their head.” Current regulations strictly limit disclosure of tax information, even with taxpayer consent. That’s how it should be.
Taxpayer information should be as sacrosanct as other intensely private information, like medical records. In this age of rapid technology changes that can be exploited by identity thieves, that principle is more important than ever.
There are enough financial traps out there already. The last thing the IRS should be doing is offering potential thieves another one.
Comments about this proposed IRS rule change can be directed to Dillon Taylor at the Office of the Associate Chief Counsel, 202-622-7752, 202-622-4940 or dillon.j.taylor@irscounsel.treas.gov.
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