TPA Responds to Reports of IRS Destroying 30 Million Tax Documents

For Immediate Release                                                                             Contact: Abigail Graham: (202) 417-7235

May 16, 2022      

Washington, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is concerned about a recent report that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mishandled and destroyed roughly 30 million documents associated with Americans’ tax returns. The episode, reported by the Department of Treasury Inspector General, is just the latest in a string of black-eyes for the embattled law enforcement agency. Recently, the IRS leaked private tax documents to journalists showing no wrongdoing, improperly disposed of computer equipment containing sensitive taxpayer data, and has a significant backlog of tax returns with many Americans still waiting on their 2020 refunds. 

TPA President, David Williams, offered the following comment:

“The IRS continues to prove incapable of executing its most basic duties, protecting and processing the sensitive financial information of millions of Americans. Yet some in Congress are actively pushing to expand the size and scope of the IRS, including new taxes on unrealized investments and having the IRS collect troves of new information to do people’s taxes for them. 

“The idea that the IRS can have its mission radically expanded would be concerning even if the agency was performing at a high level, given the inherent privacy concerns. To suggest that what the IRS needs now is more authority and more sensitive data to handle is pure lunacy.”

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.