IRS employees are snooping through your tax records
Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams, Tax
There's a very simple rule at the Internal Revenue Service: Employees are only supposed to look at tax records which are required to do their jobs. They're not supposed to look at anyone else's records. Not their neighbors. Not the ex-wife. Not a celebrity. Those records are off-limits.
The Treasury Inspector General has reported that in fiscal 2007, they opened 521 investigations related to employees snooping into tax records. In fiscal 2006, there were 448 investigations opened. That's a 16% increase in fiscal 2007.
The number of "adverse administrative actions" against IRS employees has gone up too, more than doubling between 2006 and 2007.
"The numbers aren't so bad," you might think. Guess again. Those are only the people who actually got caught snooping. Imagine how many other employees are snooping too. The IRS says the investigations involved fewer than 1% of employees, but as a taxpayer, that doesn't make me feel any better.
Of any agency that should be protecting our personal information it should be the IRS. I don't care if the number of employees accessing information without authorization is low. It still bothers me, particularly when identity theft is such a concern.
Forensic accountant Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations through her company, Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners honored Tracy as the 2007 winner of the prestigious Hubbard Award and her first book, Essentials of Corporate Fraud, will be on bookshelves in March 2008.
The Treasury Inspector General has reported that in fiscal 2007, they opened 521 investigations related to employees snooping into tax records. In fiscal 2006, there were 448 investigations opened. That's a 16% increase in fiscal 2007.
The number of "adverse administrative actions" against IRS employees has gone up too, more than doubling between 2006 and 2007.
"The numbers aren't so bad," you might think. Guess again. Those are only the people who actually got caught snooping. Imagine how many other employees are snooping too. The IRS says the investigations involved fewer than 1% of employees, but as a taxpayer, that doesn't make me feel any better.
Of any agency that should be protecting our personal information it should be the IRS. I don't care if the number of employees accessing information without authorization is low. It still bothers me, particularly when identity theft is such a concern.
Forensic accountant Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations through her company, Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners honored Tracy as the 2007 winner of the prestigious Hubbard Award and her first book, Essentials of Corporate Fraud, will be on bookshelves in March 2008.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-22-2007 @ 4:26AM
Sam said...
The reporter who wrote this article is a complete and total moron.
At least the IRS tries to stop their employees from looking at files they are not working on directly. Do any of the banks do anything to keep their employees from looking at your records? The IRS maintains "electronic" records and it is recorder and tracked by the use of a personal login code ID assigned to each employee. When any IRS employee opens any file....it is recorded.
There is no such thing as "Personal Infomation" today. Every bank employee, every credit card company employee, every credit rating service employee, every doctor and hospital employee who has ever treated you has access to all of your personal info that is so called "private" information....the employees at any company you do business with have enough information about to to steal and misuse your ID.
Every supermarket where you use a credit card at can tell you every item you bought from them in the last 12 months and the post offices computerized mail sorting machines keep records of how many pieces of mail you get every day and everytime you move to a new address.
The only way to protect you identity from identity theft today is to place a total freeze on your credit at every credit reporting agency and close all of your credit card accounts and to never use any credit card and instead pay cash for everything.
Reply
12-25-2007 @ 10:49AM
Robert said...
What about putting a "total freeze" on your 3 credit reporting agencies, but still using your credit cards? This would prevent any fraud on your credit reports, but still using your credit cards? What effect would that have?