New Government Bailout Package includes IRS Surveillance Provisions, Raises Privacy Concerns
Sections of a new $700 billion bailout bill have already passed in the House of Representatives earlier this month. While there has been discussion about the sections devoted to tax credits for green technology, there has been little talk of the new provisions included for IRS surveillance and the privacy concerns they are sure to raise.
In Declan McCullagh’s blog post on Bailout bill loops in green tech, IRS snooping, he talks about how IRS undercover operations could pose an invasion of privacy for many Americans.
Under the new House- approved bailout package, Internal Revenue Service will be given new authority to conduct undercover operations. The IRS would be immune from a passel of federal laws, including permitting IRS agents to run businesses for an extended sting operation, to open their own personal bank accounts with U.S. tax dollars, and so on.
McCullagh says:
(Think IRS agents posing as accountants or tax preparers and saying, “I’m not sure if that deduction is entirely legal, but it’ll save you $1,000. Want to take it?”) That section had expired as of January 1, 2008, and would now be renewed.
He goes on to point out how IRS snooping powers could affect individual taxpayers.
There’s another section of the bailout bill worth noting. It lets the IRS give information from individual tax returns to any federal law enforcement agency investigating suspected “terrorist” activity, which can, in turn, share it with local and state police. Intelligence agencies such as the CIA and the National Security Agency can also receive that information.
The information that can be shared includes “a taxpayer’s identity, the nature, source, or amount of his income, payments, receipts, deductions, exemptions, credits, assets, liabilities, net worth, tax liability, tax withheld, deficiencies, overassessments, or tax payments, whether the taxpayer’s return was, is being, or will be examined or subject to other investigation or processing, or any other data received by, recorded by, prepared by, furnished to, or collected by the Secretary with respect to a return.”
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Tags: bailout bill, bailout plan, IRS snooping, IRS surveillance, IRS undercover operations, tax expert
