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Bailout gives IRS authority
to conduct undercover operations
Posted October 4th, 2008 by TraditionalGOPer
The
bailout bill also gives the Internal Revenue Service new authority to
conduct undercover operations. It would immunize the IRS from a passel
of federal laws, including permitting IRS agents to run businesses for
an extended sting operation, to open their own personal bank accounts
with U.S. tax dollars, and so on.
(Think IRS agents posing as accountants or tax preparers and saying,
"I'm not sure if that deduction is entirely legal, but it'll save you
$1,000. Want to take it?") That section had expired as of January 1,
2008, and would now be renewed. br />
Starting with the so-called Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1988, the IRS has
possessed this authority temporarily, with occasional multiple-year
lapses. A 1999 internal report said the IRS had 126 "trained undercover
agents" working in field offices at the time. This is the first time
that such undercover authority would be made permanent.
Sens. Max Baucus (D) and Chuck Grassley (R) have been pushing to
make it permanent for a while, claiming (PDF) in April that:
"Undercover operations are an integral part of IRS efforts to detect
and prove noncompliance. The temporary status of this provision creates
uncertainty, as the IRS plans its undercover efforts from year to
year."
There's another section of the bailout bill worth noting. It lets
the IRS give information from individual tax returns to any federal law
enforcement agency investigating suspected "terrorist" activity, which
can, in turn, share it with local and state police. Intelligence
agencies such as the CIA and the National Security Agency can also
receive that information.
The information that can be shared includes "a taxpayer's identity,
the nature, source, or amount of his income, payments, receipts,
deductions, exemptions, credits, assets, liabilities, net worth, tax
liability, tax withheld, deficiencies, over assessments, or tax
payments, whether the taxpayer's return was, is being, or will be
examined or subject to other investigation or processing, or any other
data received by, recorded by, prepared by, furnished to, or collected
by the Secretary with respect to a return."
https://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10057618-38.html?tag=nl.e433