Statutory protections under section 6103 and related statutes prohibit improper inspection, disclosure, and misuse of taxpayer information. Section 6103 was modernized nearly 50 years ago, with overwhelming bipartisan majorities in Congress, as part of a suite of reforms enacted to prevent misuse of taxpayer information by the executive branch in response to abuses by President Nixon. The potential consequences for breaching the protections of section 6103 include criminal penalties such as imprisonment and fines, as well as money damages through civil litigation. In one recent example, a contractor working for the IRS who leaked taxpayer information was sentenced in 2024 to five years in prison.
Taxpayer privacy protections under section 6103 are complemented by statutory protections against political interference with IRS operations. Section 7217 bars top officials within the Executive Branch, including the President, from requesting an audit or investigation of a particular taxpayer, or from interfering with an ongoing audit or investigation. Violating section 7217 is a crime, punishable by fine or imprisonment.
DOGE representatives have been given access to the payment systems of the Bureau of Fiscal Services (BFS) at the Treasury Department. BFS payment systems contain information that clearly falls within the category of taxpayer information protected by section 6103. For example, the payment files at BFS may include the name, address, taxpayer identification number, sensitive banking information, and tax payment or refund amounts for taxpayers filing returns — more than 100 million households and businesses annually/.
With respect to the BFS system, the Treasury Department defended granting access to a DOGE affiliate [here; Tom Krause, Marko Elez] in a recent letter. The letter states that this affiliate is a “special government employee” of the Treasury Department working with other Treasury staff to conduct an “operational efficiency assessment” as part of a systems review to “maximize payment integrity.” It has since been reported that this affiliate will be appointed as the Fiscal Assistant Secretary for the Treasury Department. This does not resolve the question of whether any inspections or disclosures (past, ongoing, or future) are authorized.
While the Treasury letter states in general terms that privacy standards are being adhered to, it does not specifically address whether and how DOGE affiliates have complied and are complying with section 6103 and other taxpayer privacy protections.
There are several unaddressed categories of questions for determining whether DOGE affiliates have complied and are complying with these statutory protections, including:
What information has been accessed?…
Who is accessing the data and are they a Treasury employee for purposes of section 6103?….
What are the official duties of those inspecting data? ….
What is the purpose of the access? ….
Has any of this data flowed, in any way, out of government-owned hardware or software?…
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