zimv20
Mar 28, 2006, 03:04 PM
link (http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/032806_irs.html)
The Internal Revenue Service is running into trouble with a growing group of lawmakers, both liberal and conservative, who share consumer lobbyists’ concerns over the agency’s attempts to relax restrictions on the sale of taxpayer information to private companies.
The IRS bills its plan as a way to bring outdated tax policy into the 21st century. But consumer advocates blast the proposed changes as an invitation to identity theft, and even some tax preparers question whether the agency’s move is too restrictive. Members of Congress have reacted with increased scrutiny, stepping up pressure on the IRS to reconsider the planned rule.
“Consumer groups are going to expose the IRS plan for what it is — a giveaway by a Bush administration agency to private special interests that is unacceptable and should be stopped, and we believe that message will have great interest to members on both sides of aisle in Congress,” said Ed Mierzwinski, director of consumer programs for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
At issue is a proposed overhaul of a 1974 IRS regulation that restricts the sharing of private taxpayer information — from Social Security numbers to medical histories — with outside businesses and other third parties. The new rule, released by the agency in December but publicly seized upon only last week, would require tax preparers to obtain taxpayers’ written consent before disclosing tax-return data.
Tax preparers would then be cleared to sell the information to any third party requesting it, changing the current standard that businesses looking at individual tax returns must be “affiliated” with the tax preparer.
As financial-services companies get hungrier for opportunities to market tax-refund anticipation loans and other products, several members of Congress are decrying the proposed IRS rule as a potential privacy invasion. No fewer than six lawmakers already have fired off warning letters to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, asking him to put a stop to the rule change.
“While the IRS may consider this a ‘housecleaning’ measure, I can assure you my constituents view it as a lot more than that,” Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) said in a statement accompanying his letter to Everson. “They want their privacy maintained, and I’m prepared to introduce legislation to stop this proposed regulation from taking effect.”
(more)
The Internal Revenue Service is running into trouble with a growing group of lawmakers, both liberal and conservative, who share consumer lobbyists’ concerns over the agency’s attempts to relax restrictions on the sale of taxpayer information to private companies.
The IRS bills its plan as a way to bring outdated tax policy into the 21st century. But consumer advocates blast the proposed changes as an invitation to identity theft, and even some tax preparers question whether the agency’s move is too restrictive. Members of Congress have reacted with increased scrutiny, stepping up pressure on the IRS to reconsider the planned rule.
“Consumer groups are going to expose the IRS plan for what it is — a giveaway by a Bush administration agency to private special interests that is unacceptable and should be stopped, and we believe that message will have great interest to members on both sides of aisle in Congress,” said Ed Mierzwinski, director of consumer programs for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
At issue is a proposed overhaul of a 1974 IRS regulation that restricts the sharing of private taxpayer information — from Social Security numbers to medical histories — with outside businesses and other third parties. The new rule, released by the agency in December but publicly seized upon only last week, would require tax preparers to obtain taxpayers’ written consent before disclosing tax-return data.
Tax preparers would then be cleared to sell the information to any third party requesting it, changing the current standard that businesses looking at individual tax returns must be “affiliated” with the tax preparer.
As financial-services companies get hungrier for opportunities to market tax-refund anticipation loans and other products, several members of Congress are decrying the proposed IRS rule as a potential privacy invasion. No fewer than six lawmakers already have fired off warning letters to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, asking him to put a stop to the rule change.
“While the IRS may consider this a ‘housecleaning’ measure, I can assure you my constituents view it as a lot more than that,” Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) said in a statement accompanying his letter to Everson. “They want their privacy maintained, and I’m prepared to introduce legislation to stop this proposed regulation from taking effect.”
(more)
