The Department of Government Efficiency has ordered the IRS to share what the Tax Law Center at NYU describes as an “unprecedented disclosure of confidential tax information.”

DOGE apparently says it needs this information to identify improper federal benefit payments by comparing the actual payments made by government agencies with the recipients’ tax records.

Irrespective of your political views, you should be concerned about this DOGE request.

Nearly a half-century ago, Congress was concerned about the potential abuse of confidential taxpayer data by the government when it enacted a series of Internal Revenue Code provisions designed to protect taxpayers.

The IRS website contains an outstanding summary of the laws protecting a taxpayer’s tax return information from disclosure to other parties by the Internal Revenue Service. The Internal Revenue Code generally prohibits the release of tax information by an IRS employee.

Exceptions to the general rule are fairly limited, but include sharing information with the Social Security Administration, state tax agencies, law enforcement agencies who obtain a court’s permission during a criminal investigation or disclosure to intelligence agencies during the course of investigating terrorist........

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