US tax agency broke privacy law ‘approximately 42,695 times’, judge says | Courts News
Federal Judge Rules IRS Violated Taxpayer Privacy
A federal judge has determined that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) unlawfully disclosed confidential taxpayer information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on approximately 42,695 occasions.
In a ruling issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found that the IRS violated the Internal Revenue Code by improperly sharing taxpayer data with ICE. Specifically, she cited IRS Code 6103, which restricts the disclosure of tax return information without taxpayer consent.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly noted that the IRS failed to ensure that ICE’s requests for taxpayer information complied with legal requirements. The judge condemned the agency for disclosing last known taxpayer addresses to ICE in cases where the requests were notably inadequate.
The ruling was based on a declaration from Dottie Romo, the IRS’s chief risk and control officer, submitted earlier this month. Romo disclosed that the IRS had provided the Department of Homeland Security with information regarding 47,000 individuals from a total of 1.28 million requested by ICE. She also indicated that the IRS had, in many instances, disclosed additional address information, violating privacy protections put in place to safeguard taxpayer data.
While the government plans to appeal the decision, Kollar-Kotelly emphasized the importance of Romo’s declaration as a significant component of the case.
This legal action stems from an initiative during the Trump administration aimed at consolidating government data, which has raised concerns among civil rights advocates about the potential erosion of taxpayer privacy. The IRS’s controversial collaboration with ICE has been seen as part of broader efforts to bolster immigration enforcement.
On April 7, 2021, the IRS entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Homeland Security, intended to facilitate “non-tax criminal enforcement.” Critics highlighted that this agreement would likely facilitate the use of taxpayer data in identifying and deporting undocumented immigrants.
The Center for Taxpayer Rights, which filed the lawsuit, argued that taxpayer data is particularly sensitive and at risk of misuse. The organization referenced historical abuses of tax data, particularly during the Watergate scandal, when former President Richard Nixon utilized tax information for political purposes.
Nina Olson, founder of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, stated that the ruling reaffirmed their concerns regarding the IRS’s alleged policies of unlawfully releasing taxpayer addresses.
Representatives from the IRS and the Department of the Treasury did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
The data-sharing agreement currently allows ICE to submit names and addresses of undocumented immigrants to the IRS for verification against tax records. This arrangement, signed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, was controversial enough to prompt the resignation of the then-acting IRS commissioner.
Several ongoing legal challenges dispute the validity of the agreement. Earlier this week, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a request for a preliminary injunction from the immigrants’ rights group Centro de Trabajadores Unidos and other nonprofit organizations seeking to halt the agreement’s implementation. The judges indicated that the plaintiffs were unlikely to prevail in their claims due to the nature of the information exchanged between the agencies.
Nevertheless, two existing court orders have prevented the large-scale transfer of taxpayer information and have restricted ICE’s access to any IRS data it currently possesses. These preliminary injunctions remain in effect.
