Musk’s Team Seeks Access to Taxpayer Records in IRS System

According to a White House spokesperson, the Department of Government Efficiency program is required to examine data to address waste in the department.

According to those familiar with the situation, the IRS is getting ready to disclose critical taxpayer data to a team member who works with Elon Musk’s alleged Department of Government Efficiency.

Millions of Americans’ private financial information, such as their tax returns, Social Security numbers, addresses, banking information, and employment details, is stored in the IRS databases.

For far too long, waste, fraud, and abuse have been ingrained in our dysfunctional system, according to White House spokesperson Harrison Fields. “To find and fix it, direct access to the system is required.”

The American people need to know what their government has been spending their hard-earned tax dollars on, thus DOGE will keep bringing attention to the fraud they find, Mr. Fields continued.

The I.R.S. system review is the most recent action taken by Mr. Musk’s team to expand access to government data beyond what is customary for political appointees. In recent weeks, the Treasury Department has been under scrutiny as Mr. Musk’s lieutenants assigned to the department began examining the system used by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service to manage payments throughout the federal government.

According to two persons with knowledge of the situation who were not allowed to talk publicly, Gavin Kliger, a young software programmer who was brought into the Office of Personnel Management as part of the DOGE initiative, was working at I.R.S. headquarters on Thursday. He will serve as the acting commissioner’s senior adviser at the I.R.S. According to the two individuals, the tax agency is still determining the precise conditions of his employment at the I.R.S., although he is anticipated to have extensive access to its systems.

According to the two individuals, he had not yet had access to private I.R.S. information as of Sunday night.

The I.R.S. was reportedly exploring a memorandum of understanding that would grant DOGE employees extensive access to its databases, including the Integrated Data Retrieval System, which houses taxpayer accounts, according to a Washington Post story published earlier on Sunday.

Legal issues have hampered Mr. Musk’s team’s attempts to access Treasury Department data, and attempts to examine I.R.S. systems may suffer a similar outcome.

19 state attorneys general, led by Letitia James of New York, filed a lawsuit this month to stop the Trump administration’s practice of giving access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems to political appointees and “special government employees” like Elon Musk. A judge on Friday prolonged a court order that barred that access and stated that she would make a decision shortly about whether to maintain the limitations until a final decision was reached, which could take months.

As part of the administration’s effort to reduce expenses throughout the federal government, the IRS is getting ready to fire thousands of workers as early as this week.

Republicans were trying to cut off a large portion of the agency’s financing when the Biden administration was overhauling its systems at a cost of billions of dollars.

Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed his desire to modernize the outdated systems at the I.R.S.

“I have three objectives: customer service, privacy, and collections,” Mr. Bessent stated last week on Fox Business. And nobody in the nation, in my opinion, believes that the I.R.S. has fulfilled its potential in any of those three areas.

The I.R.S. has long been criticized by President Trump, who frequently laments that it was too tough in its examinations of his finances.

Mr. Trump asked recipients in a Saturday fundraising email if he should give Mr. Musk’s team permission to audit the tax agency.

“Are you tired of the I.R.S. harassing and targeting you?” Mr. Trump inquired. “Well, perhaps someone should audit them for once!”

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