IRS undercover operations: Privacy invasion?

[seemslikeadream]

POSSIBLE COST PER HOUSEHOLD $17,064+


http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10057618-38.html?tag=nl.e433


Bailout type Cost to taxpayers (Source: Reuters)

Financial bailout package approved this week up to or more than $700 billion

Bear Stearns financing $29 billion

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac nationalization $200 billion

AIG loan and nationalization $85 billion

Federal Housing Administration housing rescue bill $300 billion

Mortgage community grants $4 billion

JPMorgan Chase repayments $87 billion

Loans to banks via Fed's Term Auction Facility $200 billion+

Loans from Depression-era Exchange Stabilization Fund $50 billion

Purchases of mortgage securities by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac $144 billion

POSSIBLE TOTAL $1.8 trillion+

NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS PER U.S. CENSUS 105,480,101

POSSIBLE COST PER HOUSEHOLD $17,064+



IRS undercover operations: Privacy invasion?

The bailout bill also gives the Internal Revenue Service new authority to conduct undercover operations. It would immunize the IRS from a passel of federal laws, including permitting IRS agents to run businesses for an extended sting operation, to open their own personal bank accounts with U.S. tax dollars, and so on. (Think IRS agents posing as accountants or tax preparers and saying, "I'm not sure if that deduction is entirely legal, but it'll save you $1,000. Want to take it?") That section had expired as of January 1, 2008, and would now be renewed.

Starting with the so-called Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1988, the IRS has possessed this authority temporarily, with occasional multiple-year lapses. A 1999 internal report said the IRS had 126 "trained undercover agents" working in field offices at the time. This is the first time that such undercover authority would be made permanent.

Sens. Max Baucus (D) and Chuck Grassley (R) have been pushing to make it permanent for a while, claiming (PDF) in April that: "Undercover operations are an integral part of IRS efforts to detect and prove noncompliance. The temporary status of this provision creates uncertainty, as the IRS plans its undercover efforts from year to year."

There's another section of the bailout bill worth noting. It lets the IRS give information from individual tax returns to any federal law enforcement agency investigating suspected "terrorist" activity, which can, in turn, share it with local and state police. Intelligence agencies such as the CIA and the National Security Agency can also receive that information.

The information that can be shared includes "a taxpayer's identity, the nature, source, or amount of his income, payments, receipts, deductions, exemptions, credits, assets, liabilities, net worth, tax liability, tax withheld, deficiencies, overassessments, or tax payments, whether the taxpayer's return was, is being, or will be examined or subject to other investigation or processing, or any other data received by, recorded by, prepared by, furnished to, or collected by the Secretary with respect to a return."

That provision had already existed in federal law and automatically expired on January 1, 2008.

What's a little odd is that there's been little to no discussion of the IRS sections of the bailout bill, even though they raise privacy concerns. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said this week: "I will continue to work with congressional leaders to find a way forward to pass a comprehensive plan to stabilize our financial system and protect the American people by limiting the prospects of further deterioration in our economy." He never mentioned the necessity of additional IRS undercover operations.

[MadHound]

1. Yep, you just never know what you're voting for when you react with fear

Instead intelligence. I doubt that hardly any of those in favor of this last bailout bill even read it. They were just reacting with panic and fear instead of intelligence.

[bluesmail]

2. The RW nuts never raise taxes...they stick us taxpayers with

crap like this. $17,000.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. OK, now think about what a politicized IRS could do with this.

You think a politicized DOJ was bad? EVERYBODY has to file a tax return.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. A very little known provision in the recent banking bill, slipped in by Dodd, was to

make it mandatory that all internet purchases and sales, payed for by credit cards, be reported immediately to the Federal Government.

We have no privacy.

[dkofos]

5. Look on the bright side. These are the rules the dems get to work with

when they take over the govt. next year.