Source Thursday, March 30, 2006 at 5:25 PM Hooley leads 28 colleagues in asking IRS and Treasury to reject reselling of tax returns Washington, DC -- Today, Congresswoman Darlene Hooley (OR-5) led an effort to prevent the weakening of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) privacy rules. The proposed changes would allow tax preparers and accountants to resell partial or whole tax returns to data brokers or direct marketers. The IRS has scheduled a hearing on the proposed rule changes for April 4th, 2006, in Washington, DC. “Weakening tax return privacy less than two weeks before tax day is a belated April Fools joke on taxpayers,” said Hooley. “Consumers expect confidentiality, and should demand confidentiality from their tax preparers. At a time when sensitive personal financial information has become all too easy for crooks to get a hold of, we should be strengthening protections not relaxing them.” Hooley was joined by 28 of her colleagues in asking Treasury Secretary John Snow and IRS Commissioner Mark Everson to reconsider the proposed rules published by the IRS and Treasury in the December 8th, 2005, Federal Register. The proposed rules would allow tax preparers and accountants to resell partial or whole tax returns to data brokers or direct marketers. Current privacy protections forbid accountants and other tax preparers from re-selling information obtained from individual tax returns. In a letter to Secretary Snow and Commissioner Everson, Hooley wrote: “This proposed weakening of the privacy guidelines that currently govern the reselling of tax return information is a significant one that defies the label provided in the Federal Register notice, which characterized the change as ‘not a significant regulatory change.’ Any potential benefit to consumers from the re-selling of their most sensitive personal financial information would certainly be lost, if weakened privacy guidelines increase their vulnerability to identity theft. At a time when breaches of data security have been widespread across numerous sectors of industry, including multiple data brokers, we are reluctant to support changes that weaken the privacy safeguards that protect the sensitive personal financial information of American taxpayers. We also have serious reservations about the possible negative implications the proposed rules could have on taxpayer confidence and their expectations of privacy. The proposed re-selling of information gathered from voluntary tax returns poses a threat to the trust and confidentiality that is expected between consumers, their tax preparers, and the Internal Revenue Services.”
I don't have the time to go into that G™. I read it as voluntary. IRS will tell you, (GO ahead and call them and ask them about voluntary), that it is akin to a Stop sign. Yeah, it's voluntary that you stop, but if you don't.... Ticket And Schiff is in jail so I dunno http://www.paynoincometax.com/
