Acting IRS commissioner to resign over deal to share immigrants’ tax data with ICE

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/acting-irs-commissioner-resign-over-000820085.html

[BulldogTom]

Well, that is one way to lessen the number of tax returns the IRS has to process, justifying the force reduction.   s/s

Super Sarcastic - funny not political.

I hope you think it is funny.   If Judy kicks me off the board I won't have anyone to talk to at all....

Tom
Longview, TX

[jklcpa]

Not going to kick you off, Tom, but I can see I may be deleting posts or locking a topic soon.

[Lee B]

Here is a copy of the actual Memorandum of Understanding between the IRS and ICE with some key elements redacted:

https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/25889274-mou-0408/?embed=1

"Under the terms of the deal, ICE officers can ask the IRS for information about immigrants who have final orders of removal or are under criminal investigation --

including for the crime of failing to leave the country after 90 days." 

This potentially limits the exposure of some of the voluntary tax returns filers using ITINs.

 

[GLJEANNE]

I feel bad for all the IRS people who are going to have violate their code of ethics to do this.  In addition to the hardworking immigrants who tried to do the right thing paying their taxes.  And the economy, because all those folks have added a lot to it, and paid a lot of taxes, and now are not going to want to have real jobs, they're going to go for the under the table positions.

[Corduroy Frog]

This is the wrong way to accomplish the goal of getting rid of illegal immigrants.  And unfortunately this crosses the line into politics.

 

[Sara EA]

Immigrant tax reporting aside, this agreement violates the sanctity of the privacy bond between taxpayers and the IRS. We voluntarily give them our most private data and that of our household members and they lock it up so tightly that most of their own employees can't access it.  In my Master's course I learned that IRS can share your data with NO ONE, the only exceptions being suspected terrorism and money laundering.  We used to joke that you could list your occupation as Hit Man or Bank Robber and the IRS would keep it a secret.  Breaking that bond can further dent the agency's tarnished image.

ICE is demanding this disclosure to get immigrants' addresses.  I think the tax return is not a good place to look.  People move, have PO boxes, use someone else's address to get their mail because their own box is insecure, still use Mom's address because they're away at school or she always handles everything.  I'm sure all of us have had a client or two who suddenly notices that the address we've been using for five years has the wrong street number of spelling.

[Pacun]

I agree with Sara but there is more data than the address that can be used to locate.

You can use your relatives' address but the IRS has your work address and that one you cannot modify. They also get your kids name and ss# that they can search where that child is going to school to pin point where you most likely live. I wonder if ICE can request information from banks and also they have your un-real ID. A tax payer will not be able use someone else's address in all circumstances and that's why ICE is salivating to put its hands on IRS data. 

[Lee B]

I have read several articles saying that ICE is now intensively searching social media.

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8 minutes ago, Lee B said:

I have read several articles saying that ICE is now intensively searching social media.

I guess I'm screwed now!