IRS Plans to Allow Tax Preparers to Sell Tax Return Data

[minusonebit]

This is a goody, since i'm sure most everyone on here has someone else doing thier taxes...

IRS Plans to Allow Tax Preparers to Sell Tax Return Data
By Matthew Dailey

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is planning to relax it rules governing the use of tax return data. This landmark rule change would allow tax-return preparers, such as H&R Block to sell personal financial information from their customers' tax returns to third parties.

Under current IRS rules a tax-return preparer could only sell information from an individual's return with the customer's consent and only to affiliated groups, such as any other part of a holding company affiliated with them, MSNBC reported.

With the proposed rule change, once the tax return preparer obtains consent from the individual, then they can sell it to anyone, dropping the affiliation requirement. The Washington Post reported that once the information goes out the door, taxpayers have little control over what happens to it.

More: http://www.lp.org/article_311.shtml

[KRL]

Florida is nailing a bank that bought 500,000 DMV records from the state and then solicited the driver license records to open a bank account. Some attorneys filed a class action suit for privacy violations for over $40 Billion.