Speaking of the IRS…

Friday, April 28, 2006 | 1:22 pm

How is this not illegal?

The IRS is quietly moving to loosen the once-inviolable privacy of federal income-tax returns. If it succeeds, accountants and other tax-return preparers will be able to sell information from individual returns - or even entire returns - to marketers and data brokers.

The change is raising alarm among consumer and privacy-rights advocates. It was included in a set of proposed rules that the Treasury Department and the IRS published in the Dec. 8 Federal Register, where the official notice labeled them “not a significant regulatory action.”

What the..???

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2 Responses to "Speaking of the IRS…"

  1. Garrett says:
    April 29th, 2006 at 12:15 am

    AbsoLUTELY retarded. I’m as capitalist as you probably think I am, but the government (and those who help us interface with it) should be as efficient as possible by nature.

    That said, I think this is an opt-in thing. As in, you have to check a box on your 1040 for them to do this. Don’t get me wrong; I’m absolutely against the existence of such a line item, but it’s not as exploitative as it would be if it were automatic.

  2. Amber says:
    April 29th, 2006 at 3:09 pm

    That said, I think this is an opt-in thing.

    Yeah, but that’s pretty shady, given the nature of tax returns. The article made a good point:

    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.

    “The normal interaction is that the taxpayer just signs what the tax preparer puts in front of them,” said Jean Ann Fox of the Consumer Federation of America, one of several groups fighting the changes. “They think, ‘This person is a tax professional, and I’m going to rely on them.’ “

    Yeah, sure, everyone should probably read the documents more thoroughly, but we all know that’s not realistic.