IRS Is Investigating Release of Tax Information of Wealthy Americans -- Update
08 Junio 2021 - 03:10PM
Noticias Dow Jones
By Richard Rubin
WASHINGTON -- Federal authorities are investigating the release
of wealthy Americans' tax information, Internal Revenue Service
Commissioner Charles Rettig said Tuesday.
ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization, published details
about the reported income and tax payments of some of the richest
Americans, including Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff
Bezos and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett.
Taxpayer information is confidential, and there are potential
criminal penalties for IRS employees or others who release such
information. Mr. Rettig told lawmakers that there were internal and
external investigations beginning, with potential prosecutions to
follow.
"I share the concerns of every American for the sensitive and
private nature and confidential nature of the information the IRS
receives," he said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing that
had been scheduled before the information was released. "Trust and
confidence in the Internal Revenue Service is sort of the bedrock
of asking people and requiring people to provide financial
information."
The ProPublica article said the news organization didn't know
the identity of its source and described the information it
received as IRS data on thousands of people covering more than 15
years. It isn't certain that the information -- a highly unusual
airing of private tax data -- came directly from the IRS or whether
the agency was hacked in some way. The article highlighted years in
which Mr. Bezos and others paid little or no income tax.
"The unauthorized disclosure of confidential government
information is illegal," said Lily Adams, a Treasury Department
spokeswoman. She said that the matter has been referred to the
Treasury's inspector general, the IRS inspector general, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and federal prosecutors in
Washington.
Spokespeople for the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office didn't
immediately comment. A spokesman for the Treasury Inspector General
for Tax Administration said it won't confirm or deny the existence
of any actions but that it takes all such matters seriously.
The IRS has systems that track employees' access to taxpayer
information, and the agency has fired workers in the past for
unauthorized access. But an inspector general's report last year
said there were potential gaps in those systems.
The data in the ProPublica story attaches specific numbers and
names to a controversial but well-known feature of the U.S. income
tax system -- that people can amass significant wealth as their
companies grow but report relatively little income if they don't
sell shares or receive dividends. They can borrow against that
wealth to finance their living expenses. Then, when they die, those
appreciated assets aren't taxed as capital gains.
The Biden administration has proposed changing that system by
imposing capital-gains taxes on appreciated assets at death, and
Democrats pointed to the disclosures on Tuesday as evidence for
their case.
"The big picture is this data shows that the country's
wealthiest, who profited immensely during the pandemic, have not
been paying their fair share," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), the
chairman of the Finance Committee.
But the disclosures could hurt support for a different piece of
the Biden tax-enforcement plan, which would require banks and other
financial institutions to provide the IRS with annual information
about flows in and out of accounts. Republicans had already been
balking at that idea even before Tuesday.
"This violation of individual privacy and confidentiality could
easily happen to ordinary Americans and small businesses, and that
is what concerns me," said Sen. Steve Daines (R., Mont.)
Write to Richard Rubin at richard.rubin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 08, 2021 16:02 ET (20:02 GMT)
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