Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, today made the following comment on a new report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, "The Internal Revenue Service Is Not Adequately Protecting Taxpayer Data on Laptop Computers and Other Portable Electronic Media Devices," Reference No. 2007-20-048, available at www.tigta.gov.
"Thieves are very good at mining sensitive data for their own end. One stolen IRS laptop could put thousands of taxpayers in jeopardy. It’s hard to see why this is still a problem when the IRS knew about it more than three years ago. A Finance Committee hearing next week will look at identity theft and fraudulent tax returns. I plan to ask what the IRS is doing to fix this problem for good."