IRS Plans to allow preparers to sell data (PhillyInq)

[katty]

cont'd: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/14147002.htm

Posted on Tue, Mar. 21, 2006

IRS plans to allow preparers to sell dataCritics said the proposed regulation could lead to a loss of privacy for clients.By Jeff GellesInquirer Staff WriterThe IRS is quietly moving to loosen the once-inviolable privacy of federal income-tax returns. If it succeeds, accountants and other tax-return preparers will be able to sell information from individual returns - or even entire returns - to marketers and data brokers.

The change is raising alarm among consumer and privacy-rights advocates. It was included in a set of proposed rules that the Treasury Department and the IRS published in the Dec. 8 Federal Register, where the official notice labeled them "not a significant regulatory action."

IRS officials portray the changes as housecleaning to update outmoded regulations adopted before it began accepting returns electronically. The proposed rules, which would become effective 30 days after a final version is published, would require a tax preparer to obtain written consent before selling tax information