Your 2023 1040 Tax Return may be on your neighbor's laptop
Wikipedia commons public domain
One of the most frustrating things that Americans must do is prepare and file federal income tax returns every year which disclose confidential information to the IRS.
The IRS assures us that our information is highly protected. We’re further assured that only authorized IRS personnel will have access to our data and that it will be used solely for the purpose of assuring income tax compliance.
Enter Charles Littlejohn. Littlejohn was an IRS contractor who was recently sentenced to five years in prison. His crime? Stealing confidential tax data and leaking it to a number of media outlets. Not surprisingly, this has led to a great deal of skepticism among taxpayers over just how secure our sensitive personal data really is.
How do we know that others within the IRS aren’t taking our Social Security numbers, our bank account numbers and other data and selling it to people who will use it to steal from our accounts? How do we know that our personal information won’t be leaked by someone inside the IRS who’s trying to push a political agenda?
We don’t. And a recent report and testimony from the IRS Commissioner has given us even more reason to worry that our confidential data is not as secure as the IRS would have us believe.
TREASURY INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR TAX ADMINISTRATION REPORT
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) responded to the Littlejohn IRS breach in a report on IRS security for taxpayer information. Here are some of the key points:
The IRS assures us that our information is highly protected. We’re further assured that only authorized IRS personnel will have access to our data and that it will be used solely for the purpose of assuring income tax compliance.
Enter Charles Littlejohn. Littlejohn was an IRS contractor who was recently sentenced to five years in prison. His crime? Stealing confidential tax data and leaking it to a number of media outlets. Not surprisingly, this has led to a great deal of skepticism among taxpayers over just how secure our sensitive personal data really is.
How do we know that others within the IRS aren’t taking our Social Security numbers, our bank account numbers and other data and selling it to people who will use it to steal from our accounts? How do we know that our personal information won’t be leaked by someone inside the IRS who’s trying to push a political agenda?
We don’t. And a recent report and testimony from the IRS Commissioner has given us even more reason to worry that our confidential data is not as secure as the IRS would have us believe.
TREASURY INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR TAX ADMINISTRATION REPORT
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) responded to the Littlejohn IRS breach in a report on IRS security for taxpayer information. Here are some of the key points:
- The IRS does not have adequate controls to detect or prevent the unauthorized removal of data by users.
- As of July 13, 2023, our analysis of BEARS (Business Entitlements Access Request Systems) data identified 153,120 users who currently have or had access to an IRS information technology system, of which 13,321 are contractors. Further, of these 153,120 users, 91,661 have or had access to one or more of the 276 sensitive systems included in our evaluation.
- Our assessment of the 91,661 users determined that actions were not always taken to remove users from the system in a timely manner once they separated from the IRS. For example, we identified 279 users who were listed in BEARS) as separated, as of July 13, 2023, but continued to have access to at least one IRS sensitive system.
- Of the 5,068 users listed in BEARS as contractors, 19 contractors’ most recent background investigations were not favorable as of July 13, 2023. These contractors still retained their access to one or more sensitive systems because the IRS did not take action to suspend or disable the contractors from the IRS’s systems as required.
- The fact remains that the IRS should have suspended or disabled these contractors’ access until a favorable determination was on file. (…) We are concerned that these individuals who were not considered suitable for IRS employment were retained as contractors and were given access to sensitive systems.”
IRS Commissioner Testimony
The TIGTA report is frightening but the actual security of our confidential information is much, much worse than what was shown by the report.
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told the House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 15 that “tens of thousands” of people had their private tax files stolen by the recently-sentenced thief Charles Littlejohn.
Werfel also testified that only 50% of IRS employees come in to the office for work. The other 50% work remotely. He admitted that many of these agents working remotely don’t use government issued devices. They access our highly sensitive taxpayer data using their own laptops and phones.
Let that sink in. IRS employees are accessing our confidential taxpayer information, mostly from their own homes with no supervision, using their own personal devices.
They are not working from a secure location on highly protected devices but on their personal home devices that might be accessed by roommates or others. What could possibly go wrong?
Picture an IRS employee looking at your records, walking away for a bathroom break but not shutting down the laptop screen. A roommate who has no business seeing your confidential data walks by, takes a picture and sends it to someone else.
CONCLUSION
The question is, “How can our Members of Congress continue to force us to file tax returns containing our confidential information even though they know that this supposed confidentiality is a myth?”
Isn’t it time to eliminate the dreadful income/payroll system?
The choice is easy—do we want a system for funding the federal government:
The TIGTA report is frightening but the actual security of our confidential information is much, much worse than what was shown by the report.
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told the House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 15 that “tens of thousands” of people had their private tax files stolen by the recently-sentenced thief Charles Littlejohn.
Werfel also testified that only 50% of IRS employees come in to the office for work. The other 50% work remotely. He admitted that many of these agents working remotely don’t use government issued devices. They access our highly sensitive taxpayer data using their own laptops and phones.
Let that sink in. IRS employees are accessing our confidential taxpayer information, mostly from their own homes with no supervision, using their own personal devices.
They are not working from a secure location on highly protected devices but on their personal home devices that might be accessed by roommates or others. What could possibly go wrong?
Picture an IRS employee looking at your records, walking away for a bathroom break but not shutting down the laptop screen. A roommate who has no business seeing your confidential data walks by, takes a picture and sends it to someone else.
CONCLUSION
The question is, “How can our Members of Congress continue to force us to file tax returns containing our confidential information even though they know that this supposed confidentiality is a myth?”
Isn’t it time to eliminate the dreadful income/payroll system?
The choice is easy—do we want a system for funding the federal government:
- That is so simple everyone can understand it.
- That shows the costs of the federal government on every retail receipt so all of us understand what we are paying.
- That helps U.S. companies compete with foreign competitors.
- That keeps jobs in the U.S. rather than exporting them to other countries.
- That permanently establishes the solvency of Social Security and Medicare.
- THAT IS THE LARGEST TRANSFER OF POWER FROM D.C. TO THE PEOPLE SINCE THE CONSTITUTION WAS ADOPTED.
D.C. is ignoring the one real solution that allows us to remain citizens and not subjects, the FAIRtax. The FAIRtax is simple, non-invasive, but most of all, IT WORKS!
THE SOLUTION—PASS THE FAIRTAX!
If you don’t like the idea of the IRS and D.C. requiring you to reveal more and more of your private financial data and changing us from citizens to subjects, you should be helping to pass the FAIRtax.
THE SOLUTION—PASS THE FAIRTAX!
If you don’t like the idea of the IRS and D.C. requiring you to reveal more and more of your private financial data and changing us from citizens to subjects, you should be helping to pass the FAIRtax.
- Under the FAIRtax, there are no more tax returns. You no longer have to disclose your personal financial information to the government.
- Banks and other financial institutions no longer have to tell the government about the dividends and interest you received, or about how much you made trading stocks, bonds or other capital assets.
- There is no need for the government to know anything about your IRA because you won’t need an IRA. The FAIRtax lets everyone save for their retirement tax free.
- And of course, if the government doesn’t have your confidential financial data, they can’t leak it.
In addition to solving the confidentiality problem, the FAIRtax lets business owners concentrate on making their business more profitable and beneficial for their shareholders and employees.
President Biden and Congress, pass the FAIRtax and:
President Biden and Congress, pass the FAIRtax and:
- Do the right thing for the people of America and fix the broken income/payroll tax system!
- Go down in history as the ones who freed all present and future Americans from the tyranny of the income/payroll tax system.
- Ensure that there can be no more leaks of our confidential information.
- Transfer power back to the American people over how much tax they pay!
The FAIRtax transfers power from Congress and the bureaucrats to the people. We, not D.C., decide how much federal tax we pay.
There is no IRS—the states collect the FAIRtax.
Only retail businesses will have to collect the FAIRtax and remit it to the government.
Since less than 10% of the retailers account for 90% of retail purchases, there will be much less opportunity for evasion.
Why would D.C. pass the FAIRtax and give up this almost unlimited source of donations? The only way that they will is if the rest of us demand it!
Isn’t it time to end this ludicrous tax collection system and the IRS?
There is going to be a vote on the FAIRtax in the House of Representatives.
We now have the opportunity to force all Members of the House to show where they stand. They can:
There is no IRS—the states collect the FAIRtax.
Only retail businesses will have to collect the FAIRtax and remit it to the government.
Since less than 10% of the retailers account for 90% of retail purchases, there will be much less opportunity for evasion.
Why would D.C. pass the FAIRtax and give up this almost unlimited source of donations? The only way that they will is if the rest of us demand it!
Isn’t it time to end this ludicrous tax collection system and the IRS?
There is going to be a vote on the FAIRtax in the House of Representatives.
We now have the opportunity to force all Members of the House to show where they stand. They can:
- Vote for the present income/payroll tax system or for the FAIRtax.
- Support the corrupt income tax and the IRS or eliminate it. It can’t be any simpler than that.
- Hide the true cost of their government or pass the FAIRtax and show everyone the true cost of government on each retail receipt.
- Support the largest transfer of power from government to the people, the FAIRtax, or not.
If Members think that the FAIRtax needs to be amended to address a problem, then they can propose the change. Don’t let reject the entire bill because it has a perceived “flaw” that can be addressed.
Please stand with us and demand that your representative support a much fairer, much simpler and much more efficient way to fund the government—the FAIRtax!
The FAIRtax doesn’t pick winners and losers. Because it taxes spending, not earnings, the FAIRtax lets everyone save for their retirement tax free.
The FAIRtax will allow us to TAKE BACK CONTROL.
The income/payroll tax system is broken and no longer working—we can’t repair it but we can replace it with the FAIRTAX!
Join us and TAKE BACK CONTROL OF OUR COUNTRY AND OUR LIVES—NOT WITH BULLETS BUT WITH THE ELIMINATION OF ONE OF THE BIGGEST THREATS TO OUR LIBERTY AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY—THE INCOME/PAYROLL TAX.
We all should remember Edmund Burke’s warning that applies to our efforts to TAKE BACK CONTROL,
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
We should also remember this quote from George Orwell's 1984, which, if we do nothing, may foretell your and your children's future:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
WHAT CAN EACH OF US DO?
We can write letters and make calls to our elected representatives and attend Zoom town hall meetings demanding that if they really want to allow Americans to “TAKE BACK CONTROL”, the first step is to eliminate the income/payroll tax system and enact the FAIRTAX!
TAKE BACK CONTROL! Help us PASS THE FAIRTAX!
HELP BRING ABOUT REAL TAX REFORM AND STOP FUTURE IRS ABUSES
By contributing (investing) $10.40 per month, you help provide a financial base to AFFT. If you can make larger contributions (investments), these will be used not for salaries, as we are all volunteers, but for the needed updates to our economic studies which will be vital for all future years.
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT. It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.
Please stand with us and demand that your representative support a much fairer, much simpler and much more efficient way to fund the government—the FAIRtax!
The FAIRtax doesn’t pick winners and losers. Because it taxes spending, not earnings, the FAIRtax lets everyone save for their retirement tax free.
The FAIRtax will allow us to TAKE BACK CONTROL.
The income/payroll tax system is broken and no longer working—we can’t repair it but we can replace it with the FAIRTAX!
Join us and TAKE BACK CONTROL OF OUR COUNTRY AND OUR LIVES—NOT WITH BULLETS BUT WITH THE ELIMINATION OF ONE OF THE BIGGEST THREATS TO OUR LIBERTY AND ECONOMIC PROSPERITY—THE INCOME/PAYROLL TAX.
We all should remember Edmund Burke’s warning that applies to our efforts to TAKE BACK CONTROL,
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
We should also remember this quote from George Orwell's 1984, which, if we do nothing, may foretell your and your children's future:
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
WHAT CAN EACH OF US DO?
We can write letters and make calls to our elected representatives and attend Zoom town hall meetings demanding that if they really want to allow Americans to “TAKE BACK CONTROL”, the first step is to eliminate the income/payroll tax system and enact the FAIRTAX!
TAKE BACK CONTROL! Help us PASS THE FAIRTAX!
HELP BRING ABOUT REAL TAX REFORM AND STOP FUTURE IRS ABUSES
By contributing (investing) $10.40 per month, you help provide a financial base to AFFT. If you can make larger contributions (investments), these will be used not for salaries, as we are all volunteers, but for the needed updates to our economic studies which will be vital for all future years.
Please go to this link to invest in AFFT. It’s an investment in your and your family’s future.