TPA Responds to IRS Handling of Private Documents

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

August 29, 2022                                                                                                     

Washington, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is concerned with the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) handling of Americans’ private information. On August 26, 2022, POLITICO published confidential tax documents that belong to former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley’s non-profit, Stand For America.

The security deficiencies at the IRS have been well studied; for example, in May of 2022, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report finding that between FY2012 and FY2021, the IRS investigated 1,694 employees for unauthorized access to tax data, with 27 percent of those cases (over 450) resulting in suspension, resignation or termination.

In response, TPA Executive Director, Patrick Hedger, offered the following comment:

“Being in the public sphere does not exclude you from basic confidential information standards.

“Last year, ProPublica published the confidential tax documents of thousands of prominent Americans, including former New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg. Now, another potential presidential candidate, Nikki Haley, has become yet another victim of the IRS’ malfeasance.

“In doubling the IRS’ enforcement budget through the Inflation Reduction Act, Congress has sent a signal that lining government coffers is more important than protecting private information. In July 2022, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reported that the IRS failed to meet a whopping 17 out of 20 metrics on its Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 (FISMA)-mandated cybersecurity program. When a hose leaks, you turn off the faucet and fix the nozzle. Unfortunately, Congress is turning up the wrong kind of pressure.

“Privacy is a fundamental American right and leaks violate the agency’s public trust. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform should swiftly investigate these serious breaches of integrity and propose meaningful information security legislation so that taxpayers can have confidence in their public institutions.”

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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.