IRS Checking Out Your Facebook and Twitter to Help Keep You Honest

WHPTV.com ^ | April 3, 2013 | Jesse Knutson

[DogByte6RER]

IRS checking out your Facebook and Twitter to help keep you honest

You have less than two weeks to file your taxes and your Facebook or Twitter accounts could end up getting you in big trouble with the IRS.

They're looking for tax cheaters. The IRS has been known to check car records, employment documents and other public records. Now, your social media page is on that list too.

“I think that’s a little bit ridiculous,” replied one person we talked to.

Some of the people we talked to were surprised.

“I think it’s still an invasion of privacy,” commented Ken Moses. “You wouldn’t want the IRS looking into your profile to see how much money you make or anything else like that.”

Others see that times have changed and expect this from the government.

“I’m not surprised at all. I feel like they’ll do anything to just get something out of you,” Jesus Guzman commented.

The IRS has a 38-page training manual on how agents can use the Internet. The training manual says that IRS agents, “(You) are required to conduct Internet searches to determine taxpayer ecommerce activities. Generally, (you) IRS Agents are allowed to review information from publicly accessible, unrestricted websites.”

The manual continued to speak about social media specifically, saying, “Employees may not use either their correct identification information or false identification information to become "friends" to gain access to the taxpayer's social network site.”

That means that IRS agents can only view your profile if you have your privacy settings set to public.

Most of the people we talked to understood the idea, but weren’t too fond of it.

[a fool in paradise]

“It’s supposed to be a social thing for friends and I don’t think the IRS is listed as many people’s friends,” commented Ken Moses.

So the IRS needs just to just take a tip from the EPA and make up some names. Use some attractive "strangers" in your "town" to become friends with "your friends" and then send you a friend request.

If not on facebook, then at least on LinkedIn where people use such "unknown stranger" connections to network to the next ring of contacts within companies.