We Can’t Trust the IRS

By Charles C. W. Cooke

Tuesday, June 08, 2021

 

What did you make of that big ProPublica story on the intimate tax information of America’s richest men? Personally, I concluded that I can’t trust the IRS.

 

There are only a few ways in which the information ProPublica examined could have made it onto the Internet. It could have been leaked by someone who works for — or with — the IRS. It could have been hacked by an outside group. Or it could have been surreptitiously released by a member of Congress or a Biden administration staffer. Whichever one of these happened, the conclusion must be the same: We cannot trust the IRS.

 

“Oh, who cares?” you might ask. “The victims are billionaires!” And indeed, they are. But I care. For a start, they’re American citizens, and they’re entitled to the same rights — and protected by the same laws — as everyone else. Their privacy does not matter less than mine just because they’re richer than I am. Besides, even if one wants to be entirely amoral about it, one should consider that if their information can be spilled onto the Internet, anyone’s can. And, if you were in their shoes, you’d probably care a lot more than they do. A government that is this reckless or sinister with the information of men who are lawyered to the eyeballs is unlikely to worry too much about being reckless or sinister with your information.

 

Every time this happens, there’s an excuse. Last time, it was “But Donald Trump declined to release his tax returns after he promised he would!” Okay, he did, and that was bad. It didn’t justify breaking the law, though. This time, the excuse is that the current tax system is “unfair.” Okay, that’s certainly a viewpoint. Again, though: It doesn’t justify breaking the law. The IRS wields an extraordinary amount of power, and there will always be somebody somewhere who thinks that it should be used to advance their favorite political cause. Our refusal to indulge their calls is one of the many things that prevents us from descending into the caprice and chaos of your average banana republic.

 

One of the many advantages of living in Florida is that I am not obliged to furnish the state with any information at all in order to make my living. Florida does not know for whom I choose to work, or how much I make. It does not know to which charities I choose to donate, or how much I give. It does not know how large my mortgage is, or how much I still owe. It knows nothing, and it keeps nothing. In 2016, a hack of IRS systems yielded the sensitive personal information of more than 700,000 Americans. Had those responsible, or anyone else, elected to try the same thing in Florida, they would have found zip.

 

It has long astonished me that left-leaning Americans are as bothered as they are by the PATRIOT Act — a concern I share, for the record — and yet are not only comfortable with the IRS as it exists, but, in many cases, would like to make it even more intrusive. Elizabeth Warren wants to institute an unconstitutional “wealth tax” that would require high earners to invite the IRS to superintend a whole host of their quotidian transactions. Joe Biden wants to spend $80 billion to double the IRS’s workforce and, thereby, to increase the number and scope of audits. The biggest achievement of the last Democratic administration fused the tax and health-care systems. Realistically, which organization do we think is more likely to play a part in the release of information that embarrasses or damages you: the Internal Revenue Service, or your county library?

 

At some point prior to the release of ProPublica’s piece, somebody was rifling through information that, as a matter of course, we all expect to remain confidential. This time, they filtered for “Buffett,” “Bezos,” “Gates,” and “Musk.” But they didn’t have to. “Cooke” is just as easily found. And so, too, will be the last name of the next person who really, really, annoys the guy sitting in front of the terminal. Does that bother you?

 

It should.