More
than a year ago, the news website ProPublica began publishing stories that it
claims are based on “a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax
returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, covering more than 15
years.”
Since
then, ProPublica has continued to publish articles that appear to use data
leaked or hacked from the IRS.
Despite
questions from Congress and immediate expressions of concern from the Treasury
Department and the IRS, we don’t know any more today than we did a year ago.
Even
though these apparent leaks of confidential taxpayer information appear to
target the wealthy, all taxpayers and anyone who cares about effective tax
administration should be very concerned.
The
fact is, until we get answers, we don’t know if anyone’s tax return or other
information submitted to the IRS is secure.
At
the end of the 2022 filing season, more than 145 million individual income tax
returns were filed with the IRS.
Right
now, we don’t know if there is a current vulnerability to IRS systems that
makes this personal information accessible within the IRS or to bad actors
outside the IRS.
We
don’t know if a foreign nation with hostile intentions is responsible for a
leak or hack of taxpayer information, or the full scope of IRS information that
may be involved.
Just
because ProPublica hasn’t found it politically useful to publicly disclose your
private taxpayer information doesn’t mean your tax information hasn’t also been
compromised.
As
I said earlier, in June of 2021, concern was immediately expressed in Congress
and at the Treasury Department.
Commissioner
Rettig appeared before the Finance Committee the morning the first story
published.
He
said, “I think that trust and confidence in the Internal Revenue Service is
sort of the bedrock of asking people and requiring people to provide financial
information. And, we have, as I said, turned it over to the appropriate investigators,
external and internal.”
Attorney
General Garland was quoted as saying, “This is an extremely serious matter. People
are entitled, obviously, to great privacy with respect to their tax returns.”
With
this level of concern expressed so quickly a year ago, you would expect action
to have been taken quickly. You would be wrong.
Despite
several letters sent by myself and other members of congress, we don’t know any
more today about what happened than we did last year on June 8 when this
situation began.
Testifying
before the House Ways and Means Committee, Secretary Yellen said, “I am as
anxious as you are to find out what happened.”
As
a strong proponent of congressional oversight of the executive branch, I’ve
always been frustrated when the executive refuses to share relevant information
we need in Congress.
Secretary
Yellen’s statement suggests a more disturbing possibility where the executive
completely lacks the sought-after information.
Consider
how shocking it is if the secretary of the Treasury actually has no insight or
knowledge into a possible massive leak or hack of taxpayer information that
occurred under her watch.
In
order to determine if any action has been taken, I, along with other Republican
members of the Judiciary Committee, wrote to Attorney General Garland and FBI
Director Wray on June
24 of this year to ask about the status of any investigation once again.
I
know the Department of Justice is capable of taking action quickly when it
wants to. I’ve written
to the Attorney General several
times about the memo he issued in response to a letter from the National
School Boards Association.
That
school board letter compared parents to domestic terrorists.
It
took the Department of Justice five days, which included a weekend, to inject
federal law enforcement into local debates with concerned parents.
Clearly
the Attorney General is capable of taking action quickly when an administration
priority is concerned.
I
hope the Biden administration and the Garland Department of Justice would be as
concerned about the protection of confidential taxpayer information as they are
about monitoring concerned parents.
If
the Department of Justice and FBI want to show they take the confidentiality of
taxpayer information seriously, they can start by fully and completely
responding to my letter of June 24, which hasn’t yet been responded to.
More
than a full year, with a complete filing season, is too much time to have gone
by without any information being provided at all.
Democrats
constantly spoke of the need for fairness in the tax system as they pushed
through their partisan tax and spending bill. Yet, we’ve heard barely a peep
out of them on what may be the largest unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer
information in history.
While
we continue to wait for answers, we’ve learned of another massive breach of
taxpayer information.
On
the first Friday of September, we learned the IRS mistakenly published on its
website private information from about 120,000 taxpayers. According to
Politico, the disclosure consisted of “details from business tax returns filed
by tax-exempt organizations and retirement accounts, included people’s names,
business contact information and income produced by certain investments.”
Clearly
the ability of the IRS to safeguard taxpayer information is an ongoing issue.
This
new revelation should light a fire underneath the FBI to get to the bottom of
the ProPublica leak or hack.
Attorney
General Garland and FBI Director Wray must fully respond to my letter and help
all of us understand if our tax system is safe and secure.
