Political Quotes

“today I rise to introduce a taxpayer privacy bill. Much attention has been focused recently on IRS-proposed changes to regulations regarding taxpayer privacy. Interestingly, these proposed changes have been widely--and incorrectly--reported as changing the law to allow tax preparers to sell taxpayer information to third parties for marketing purposes. In fact, an IRS regulation put into place more than 30 years ago already allows confidential taxpayer information to be shared in this manner, as long as the taxpayer consents. The public uproar that has surrounded the proposed changes to this regulation makes it clear that taxpayers are not aware of this fact and expect that their return information will be kept confidential. Confidentiality of taxpayer information is a key underpinning of our voluntary tax system, encouraging taxpayers to provide complete and honest returns. The complexity of the tax code has resulted in 60 percent of all returns being completed by paid preparers. The process is a very intimidating one for most. Given the stress and vulnerability of taxpayers during the process, and the high dollar value of confidential taxpayer information, I am concerned that financially-motivated tax preparers may present the taxpayer with a stack of papers for the taxpayer to sign, including, unbeknownst to the taxpayer, a consent form to share the information with third parties.…”