Latest news with #IntegratedDataRetrievalSystem
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lawmaker calls on Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation to support DOGE
(WHTM)– A Pennsylvania lawmaker is calling on lawmakers to support the Department of Government Efficiency. State Senator Doug Mastriano called on the Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation to support DOGE, the organization created by President Donald Trump and Tech Billionaire Elon Musk to reduce and cut government spending more efficiently. 'For too long, taxpayer dollars have been wasted on bloated bureaucracies, redundant programs and outrageous foreign expenditures that do nothing for the hardworking people of Pennsylvania. Government inefficiency is a hidden tax on every citizen. Billions of dollars have vanished into fraudulent programs and unnecessary contracts. Critical resources have been misallocated while Pennsylvanians struggle to make ends meet,' Mastriano said. DOGE: Several government offices to close in Central Pennsylvania Mastriano added that DOGE's accomplishments so far show that the government can work for the people. DOGE's role in slashing government inefficiencies and spending has sparked some controversy since the Trump Administration took office with reports that the organization attempted to access the Treasury Department and the Integrated Data Retrieval System and its firing of thousands of federal workers. While some of the organization's practices have been deemed controversial by some, others are in full support, with some lawmakers proposing state's should have their own DOGE. Mastriano himself proposed Pennsylvania should have their own version of DOGE, saying that DOGE only existing at the federal level has drawn confusion and criticism. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE accessing ‘the motherlode' of Americans' private IRS data raises serious questions. We've got answers.
A fast-moving bid to find waste and fraud within the federal government is coming closer to touching everyday Americans' financial lives, as the Trump administration's so-called Department of Government Efficiency sets its sights on a carefully monitored IRS data system. The database that DOGE wants access to contains individuals' and companies' tax-return data, bank account details, Social Security numbers and the status of any audits or criminal tax probes they might be facing, experts told MarketWatch. This isn't a 10-stock show right now. Here's where to find opportunities with the S&P 500 at all-time highs. Super Micro's stock is its most overbought in a year. Here's why that's bullish. The iPhone 16e has one big drawback What drove this Vanguard fund to just top the U.S.'s oldest and largest ETF by $1.5 billion 'She's bleeding her retirement dry': My friend earns $9 an hour, but wastes money on vacations and massages. What can I do? It also contains details about who owes taxes, where they make their charitable donations and who lives in their house. The data system also has tax information about businesses that investors don't typically see, experts told MarketWatch. 'The only way I can describe it is, it's the motherlode,' Nina Olson, former IRS National Taxpayer Advocate, said of the data system, formally known as the Integrated Data Retrieval System. Also read: Should you be worried about Elon Musk's DOGE accessing your Social Security information? The Treasury Department is now working on a memorandum of understanding to establish the terms under which DOGE could access the database, the Washington Post reported. Olson's current organization, the Center for Taxpayer Rights, is one of the plaintiffs now suing the Treasury Department and the IRS to block DOGE access to the data system. The lawsuit argues that granting DOGE access would violate a slew of federal laws guarding against unauthorized disclosure of the information in the system. At stake are taxpayer privacy and a fair market, the plaintiffs say in court papers. People on the DOGE team, led by Elon Musk, could see the tax records of Musk's business competitors, the lawsuit said. Musk, the world's richest man, is CEO of Tesla TSLA and SpaceX and owner of the social-media platform X, formerly Twitter. Everyone should be concerned by DOGE's foray toward the sensitive data, Olson said. 'This is extremely private information that's not just about moguls,' she told MarketWatch. Two big looming questions about the DOGE request are what data DOGE will be allowed to see, and what happens next with the request, she said. Olson was the chief advocate for taxpayers at the IRS from 2001 to 2019, serving from President George W. Bush's first administration to President Donald Trump's first term. Other former IRS officials say Americans should take a breath before worrying too much about DOGE prying into their personal finances. There are ways to balance taxpayers' rights to privacy with efforts to reduce misspent tax dollars, according to David Kautter, a former acting IRS commissioner in the first Trump administration. 'It's not like there's no reason for concern,' Kautter said of DOGE's request to access the database. 'There is reason for concern. If done appropriately, with appropriate restrictions and monitoring, the reason for concern diminishes dramatically.' One way to strike the balance would be to shield taxpayers' names and identifying information from DOGE employees, he said. If the Trump administration's goal is to get a sense of how much money is accurately paid out by the IRS, 'I don't know how you can do it without access to the data,' Kautter said. Related: Should you be worried about Elon Musk's DOGE accessing your Social Security information? The fact that Musk is at the helm of DOGE may make the request seem more controversial, said Kautter. But the IRS routinely gives some level of access to the sensitive database to people outside the agency, he noted. That includes federal contractors, people at the Joint Committee on Taxation inside Congress, and Treasury Department economists, he said. If someone is worried about about DOGE staff invading their privacy by having read-only access to the data system, they should have 'that same concern extending to the hundreds of outside contractors and researchers who also have access to these systems,' former IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig told MarketWatch. More than 500 outside contractors and far more than 500 non-IRS employees working on various research projects have access to the data system, Rettig said. Rettig served as the IRS chief under the first Trump and Biden administrations. IRS employees themselves have limited access to the database. Rettig and Kautter both said they did not have access to the system when they headed the IRS. The ways a person is allowed to use the database are circumscribed by their job role, they and Olson noted. For Olson, designating DOGE workers as 'special government employees' doesn't give them adequate permission to view the data. Even government officials using the database need to articulate clear reasons why they need the information, she said. As for DOGE's assertion that it's acting 'under the rubric of fraud, waste and abuse, that's so broad you drive a tanker truck through it,' Olson said. 'It's not clear to me what you are looking for.' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Americans shouldn't be concerned about DOGE access in government systems at the IRS or elsewhere. At the IRS, 'one person, out of 90,000 employees, is looking at this outdated IT system. That's all they're doing,' he said in a Fox News interview airing Tuesday. The IRS improperly paid out $22 billion in earned income tax-credit money in fiscal year 2023, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, an independent, nonpartisan agency tasked with monitoring government spending. The tax credit is geared at low-income families and its rules are complex. Improper payments are generally considered money that should not have been paid, or paid in a different amount, the report noted. The GAO, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and other government entities monitor IRS spending and issue regular reports on misspent money. But tax fraud has specific legal definitions and standards of proof that require accounting and legal training that DOGE data-crunchers may not possess, Olson said. Taxpayers can take legal action when their information is wrongly outed. Charles Littlejohn was not an IRS employee, but through his contractor status, he gained access to the personal tax information of people like Trump and Musk — and then leaked the data to media outlets. Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison last year. The ways Littlejohn downloaded information have been identified and addressed, Rettig said. The IRS faces over 1 billion cyberattacks yearly, he said. 'If their systems were deficient, you'd hear of more scenarios involving unauthorized access,' Rettig said. Federal law lets taxpayers sue the IRS for money damages if the agency allows unauthorized disclosure of a taxpayer's information. Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, sued the IRS over Littlejohn's leak of his tax returns. He ended the case once the IRS publicly apologized and said it made 'substantial investments in its data security.' The lawsuit — joined by groups including two labor unions and a small-business group called Main Street Alliance — says DOGE access to the IRS database could give Musk an inside track if he's able to see the tax situations and audit woes of his business rivals. 'No other business owner on the planet has access to this kind of information on his competitors, and for good reason,' the court papers said. But Kautter said there could be ways to make some tax data off-limits to DOGE employees. Business-related tax returns have industry codes, he noted. As part of its agreement with DOGE, the Treasury Department could block DOGE access to those codes and keep particular names out of search results, he said. Rettig agreed that programming around industry codes could be the solution. Still, tax returns only show so much, he noted. 'Tax filings represent a summary of business activities. Companies don't disclose confidential operating plans, trade secrets or similar in their tax filings. Tax filings would demonstrate profit margins for certain activities,' Rettig said. A congressional hearing on IRS operations last week dug into what Musk and DOGE could do at the IRS. Olson was one of the witnesses. Neither Musk nor DOGE 'have the power to cut off Social Security checks, Medicare benefits or tax refunds,' said Rep. Aaron Bean, a Republican from Florida who co-chairs the DOGE caucus, a group of lawmakers that says it's working with DOGE to 'rein in reckless spending.' Democrats were trying to 'create a scandal,' Bean said of criticisms that DOGE is prying too much into sensitive government data. If Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent 'want to open the books on Treasury payment systems, that's their prerogative and we would encourage them to do so, subject to applicable legal rules,' Bean said. Bean's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Olson said she worries that talk of DOGE potentially snooping around in IRS data could make some people reluctant to file taxes and claim the credits and deductions they deserve, especially 'most vulnerable parts of society, the working poor and the working middle class.' DOGE is making headway in its attempts to examine other government data. On Tuesday, Washington D.C. Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan refused to immediately block the DOGE team's access to government data at agencies including the Education Department, Labor Department and Energy Department. The lawsuit over the IRS database says there are different laws governing how taxpayer information can be accessed. The Treasury Department, IRS and White House did not respond to a comment request. What personal-finance issues would you like to see covered in MarketWatch? We would like to hear from readers about their financial decisions and money-related questions. You can fill out or write to us at . A reporter may be in touch to learn more. MarketWatch will not attribute your answers to you by name without your permission. 'Is this ethical?' I want to leave my home to my children from my first marriage — and not to my second husband. The biggest U.S. stocks haven't been this expensive since the dot-com era. That's making investors nervous. 'I have fear of financial insecurity': I'm 58, recently widowed with $1 million saved for retirement. What if the economy tanks? My stepmother remarried after my father's death. She has no intention of leaving me anything. What can I do? Last week showed the stock market has moved on from obsessing about inflation. Here's the new playbook.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE affiliate may access IRS taxpayer records: Report
(NewsNation) — An IRS employee affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency is expected to seek access to a system that holds sensitive taxpayer information, according to NBC News. DOGE is specifically looking to get into the Integrated Data Retrieval System, which allows IRS employees to see taxpayer accounts. A DOGE staffer visited the agency Thursday to meet with executives, according to Reuters. Elon Musk's DOGE has access to these federal agencies According to the IRS website, the IDRS is used to 'research account information and request returns' and to 'automatically generate notices, collection documents and other outputs.' It contains information such as taxpayer identification numbers and retirement account information. The move comes as DOGE is expanding its efforts to access sensitive information that the federal government holds. An X account with the name DOGE IRS made a post Monday, reading, 'DOGE is seeking help from the public! Please DM this account with insights on finding and fixing waste, fraud and abuse relating to the Internal Revenue Service.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE is taking its wrecking ball to the IRS, and it's likely to be a gift to the rich
Elon Musk's destructive DOGE operation is turning its sight to the Internal Revenue Service, and things are already looking dicey. There are reports that sensitive taxpayer information could be misused, and that potential cuts to the IRS's workforce could cause a headache for taxpayers this tax season — as well as serve as an unexpected gift to rich tax dodgers. According to NBC News, an IRS employee affiliated with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is 'expected to seek access' to the Integrated Data Retrieval System, which 'contains information such as taxpayers' individual master files, taxpayer identification numbers, retirement account information and details on pending adoptions.' The Washington Post reported that 'IDRS access is extremely limited — taxpayers who have had their information wrongfully disclosed or even inspected are entitled by law to monetary damages.' Citing three people familiar with internal agency deliberations at the IRS, the Post noted that 'the request for DOGE access has raised deep concern within the IRS,' as it is 'highly unusual to grant political appointees access to personal taxpayer data, or even programs adjacent to that data.' Nina Olson, the former head of the IRS's internal consumer watchdog, told the Post: 'The information that the IRS has is incredibly personal. Someone with access to it could use it and make it public in a way, or do something with it, or share it with someone else who shares it with someone else, and your rights get violated.' White House spokesperson Harrison Fields defended the access controversy by saying that 'waste, fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long' and 'it takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.' But it's not clear how a lone software engineer will do that, and it doesn't address the breach of norms. In addition to the odd and concerning intrusions into personal databases, the prospect of possible mass layoffs at the IRS is also bad news. Two sources familiar with the IRS's plans told The Associated Press that the agency is expected to lay off thousands of probationary workers in the middle of tax season. Probationary status refers to how recently someone was hired for a new position, and across the federal government it typically takes one to two years for a worker for full civil protections to take effect for them. Some accountants say that a personnel shortage could mean long wait times for taxpayers seeking help with their returns and significant delays for tax refund checks. The latter would be a particularly bad headache for people short on cash who are depending on a swift refund to manage their financial costs for the year. But there's one set of people who would benefit from a shrunken IRS workforce: people who want to commit tax fraud. President Joe Biden fought to add tens of thousands of workers to the IRS in order to step up enforcement and crack down on tax cheats. While Republicans disingenuously sought to frame this as about targeting the middle class, the wealthy are the biggest beneficiaries of weaker enforcement. I wrote in 2023: As experts like Georgetown University's Don Moynihan have pointed out, an understaffed IRS is of greatest benefit to the rich, whose finances are more complicated to evaluate, and who are more adept at finding loopholes. 'The audit rate for individuals earning more than $1 million has been divided by 4 since 2010, feeding massive tax dodging,' he noted. In other words, if there are significant layoffs of IRS workers, it will likely encourage unethical tax behavior — and make it harder for any such bad actors to get caught. Once again we're seeing how DOGE is using the pretext of 'efficiency' to lay waste to a functioning government. DOGE continues to aggressively seek access to sensitive information tied to payment systems and private taxpayer information across various departments without explaining why any of it is necessary for reform. And its rash and hurried mass layoffs are, by definition, not designed to make departments more productive. In the case of the IRS, Musk's tampering is likely only to hurt ordinary Americans while ensuring his plutocrat pals have an easier time fleecing the public. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE creates X accounts to crowdsource info on government ‘waste'
WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — The Department of Government Efficiency is turning to Elon Musk's social platform X to tackle what it deems waste within federal departments like the Internal Revenue Service. The move comes as Musk's team faces major pushback from Congress over DOGE's request to access an IRS system containing sensitive taxpayer data. DOGE claims it has already recovered funds across the federal government and is putting a price tag on its so-called savings. Additionally, the department claims it has discovered thousands of dollars in subscriptions to newspapers, millions going toward diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across several agencies, and millions for programs that provide digital modernization to schools through the Department of Education. Could DOGE, Trump administration close the IRS? On its website, DOGE estimates it has saved around $55 billion by eliminating waste across at least 10 agencies through measures such as slashing fraud, renegotiating contracts, canceling grants, reducing workforce numbers and implementing program changes. DOGE is now asking for the public's help to find perceived waste, fraud or abuse in the federal government. It has launched over 30 different accounts on X dedicated to gathering ideas for cuts. DOGE has also been reaching out to various agencies, including the IRS, seeking access to systems used by federal agencies. As tax season begins, with approximately 140 million Americans expected to file their returns, DOGE is focusing heavily on the IRS system, known as the Integrated Data Retrieval System, that the agency uses to access millions of sensitive taxpayer files. This has raised concerns among Democrats, who argue Musk and his team should not have access to such private information. Defending DOGE's efforts, the White House states, 'Waste, fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long. It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.' How will DOGE impact Social Security? Panelists debate program's future However, Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., are raising concerns over privacy and security risks, and have sent a letter to IRS acting Commissioner Douglas O'Donnell, writing, 'Software engineers working for Musk seeking to gain access to tax return information have no right to hoover up taxpayer data and send that data back to any other part of the federal government and may be breaking the law if they are doing so.' Pushback has continued, with a federal judge expected to issue a decision on a lawsuit related to the issue Tuesday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
