Leak of taxpayer records highlights IRS security problems

Published June 25, 2021 2:00pm ET



Is your tax information secure? The answer to such an important question is not as clear-cut as one would hope.

Last year, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration warned that the Internal Revenue Service does not have adequate safeguards in place to protect taxpayer’s records from unauthorized access by either its own employees or cybercriminals. Recently, ProPublica published a report based on confidential taxpayer records. It is unclear how the data was obtained, but the leak raises fresh concerns about long-standing taxpayer privacy problems at the IRS, especially amid plans to supersize the agency with 87,000 new agents and to mandate additional reporting of financial data.

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