They caught the guy who leaked all the rich peoples tax returns

[BulldogTom]

A lot of the stories are biased one way or another, so I am not going to post a link.   But you can google the story.   It is all over the web.

IRS Consultant illegally downloaded decades of tax returns of the nations wealthiest taxpayers, including a "public official" widely believed to be former President Trump, and leaked the information to news outlets, most notably the New York Times.

He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

***warning - rant coming***  I HOPE THEY CONVICT THE JERK AND MAKE HIM SERVE THE WHOLE 5 YEARS WITHOUT A CHANCE OF PAROLE.  I wish Congress would pass a law that says anyone who distributes taxpayer information without written (not click through T&Cs on a website) agreement of the taxpayer should face the same 5 years.   ***rant over***

Tom
Longview, TX 

[Sara EA]

The story was just published by the NY Times, so it's for real.  I won't post the link because you have to be a subscriber to read it.  The leaker was a gov't contractor.  The article explained that the IRS was so careful not to leak Trump's returns that they actually constructed a safe to keep the paper copies.  Apparently contractors are not always adequately trained, which is the weak link.  Why are contractors handling our tax data?

[Lee B]

It's not well publicized but most of the data management,  all of the computer programming and system engineering functions are performed by third parties under contract.

Consulting firms like Accenture, Booz Allen & Hamilton, Deloitte Consulting, Microsoft and ID.me.