Posted on 02/17/2025 12:08:14 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
The Internal Revenue Service is preparing to give a team member working with Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency access to sensitive taxpayer data, people familiar with the matter said.
The systems at the I.R.S. contain the private financial data tied to millions of Americans, including their tax returns, Social Security numbers, addresses, banking details and employment information.
“Waste, fraud and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long,” Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, said. “It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.”
Mr. Fields added: “DOGE will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover as the American people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard-earned tax dollars on.”
The examination of the I.R.S. system represents the latest move by members of Mr. Musk’s team to push the boundaries of access to government data beyond what is typical for political appointees. The Treasury Department has faced questions in recent weeks after lieutenants of Mr. Musk who were assigned to the agency started scrutinizing the Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s system, which directs payments across the federal government.
Gavin Kliger, a young software engineer who was brought into the Office of Personnel Management as part of the DOGE effort, worked at I.R.S. headquarters on Thursday, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. He will be assigned to the I.R.S. as a senior adviser to the acting commissioner. The tax agency is still working out the exact terms of his work at the I.R.S., though he is expected to have broad access to its systems, according to the two people.
As of Sunday evening, he had not yet gained access to sensitive I.R.S. data, the two...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Per the headline, I say GOOD! The crap in the article -— liars.
The government is afraid that the government will gain access to what the government has been doing.
Sorry, I just don’t do the Times. 😜
They’ll portray it as if Elon is going after working stuff’s refunds and granny’s social security. Not the preferential treatment that leftist organizations have been getting for decades.
Maybe find and report how politicians and beaucrats get filthy rich illegally
So the nyt can still afford to pay THREE people to write ONE story eh?
Maybe the nyt needs a DOGE audit.
I trust Musk’s team more than IRS
China hacks US Treasury and media and elected officials shrug.
Just like every employer if you use direct deposit and just like many of the IRS' 59,000 employees.
I worked on testing the Individual Tax System at the IRS for Y2K problems. We had to use actual tax returns for our testing. We had access to your tax returns. We got in trouble if we deliberately accessed someone whom we knew, but that was all. The fact that I had TS SI/TK clearance at the time made no difference. All one had to do is pass a National Agency Check to gain access. A couple of my co-workers were actually delinquent on their taxes.
The fraud with food stamps, etc. is huge. I’ve seen it firsthand. Since every state has its own data processing system there can be fraud across state lines.
From a pure data analysis perspective, a lot of the fraud can be found by simple looking for SS# dups in different systems paying out the same benefits, comparing the SS# to the federal master death file and also making sure the SS# is real.
As far as the IRS stuff? If anyone wants to apply for any benefit that depends on income every state should be able to ping a system that has the gross income number and the SS#. If the numbers indicate more investigation, then do so.
The fraudsters are raping the American taxpayer and a lot of it is coming in from offshore.
Another thing would be to not provide individual benefits if the person is an illegal or they have assets like vehicles with liens, real property or a business. As it stands now, the agencies that dole out benefits simple do not underwrite the risk, if they did a lot of fraud would be easily found and we could supply proper benefits to actual Americans faster.
You could literally figure out the metrics on a lot of this if you had the necessary data on a laptop.
The only way big reductions in fraud will take place is if one group is allowed access to all the data, if not then we will continue to see trillions more scammed. DOGE is just getting started. The big data guys are in the big data hen house and there is little or nothing that can be done about it.
I can’t wait to start seeing the real numbers that DODGE will be telling us about. We have given very good mathematicians access to the math:)
IRS contractor leaked several tax records, including Trumps to Politico Pro and NYTimes. Of course they knew their source had committed a criminal act, but published the information anyway.
Leaker caught and prosecuted.
ProPublica, not PoliticoPro
Right.
“beyond what is typical for political appointees”
See how they snuck that in?
Political appointees < bureaucrats.
Oh OK. So the agency employees have a higher status then a mere appointee, who apparently is just some figurehead who’s supposed to appear on TV or go to state dinner parties but otherwise not interfere with the Annointed Ones who actually own the government.
And these are the same people who rant about “protecting democracy”.
Good catch.
I would rather have MUSK & his WIZARDS have access to IRS RECORDS than to have the IRS HOLDING ALL THE GUNS & AMMO OBAMA BOUGHT FOR THEM——
How many jobs have most of us held in a lifetime-—???
EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE EMPLOYERS HAS YOUR SS #. EVERY ONE—whether W-2 or 1099.
SO DOES YOUR MEDICAL provider.
So DOES YOUR BANK
So DOES YOUR AUTO LOAN PROVIDER
So does your Mortgage provider
So does your LANDLORD
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