Re: IRS to keep unreviewable secret dossiers on US citizens

[pstemari@erinet.com (Paul J. Ste. Marie)]

At 12:44 PM 1/20/95 CST, xpat@vm1.spcs.umn.edu wrote:
>Excerpts from : St Paul Pioneer Press, Jan 29, 1995
>
>"IRS plans to collect more data on individuals to nab tax cheats"

        [...]

Here's the text from the recent EPIC annoucement on this--it covers the 
exemption the IRS is claiming from the FOIA in a bit more detail (sorry if 
people have already seen this):

=======================================================================
[6] IRS Initiates Massive New Database
=======================================================================

On December 20, the Internal Revenue Service announced in the Federal
Register that it was planning a new database to monitor compliance of
taxpayers in a project entitled Compliance 2000.  The database would
contain information on all individuals in the U.S. who conduct certain
financial transactions and would be segmented by different criteria:

	Any individual who has business and/or financial
	activities. These may be grouped by industry, occupation,
	or financial transactions, included in commercial
	databases, or in information provided by state and local
	licensing agencies.

The new database will combine private and public sector databases in a
single searchable entity.  A number of federal financial databases
from the IRS will be enhanced with state, local and commercial
sources. The Federal Register notice describes the non-tax databases:

	Examples of other information would include data
	from commercial databases, any state's Department
	of Motor Vehicles (DMV), credit bureaus, state and
	local real estate records, commercial publications,
	newspapers, airplane and pilot information, U.S.
	Coast Guard vessel registration information, any
	state's Department of Natural Resources
	information, as well as other state and local
	records.  In addition, Federal government databases
	may also be accessed, such as, federal employment
	files, federal licensing data, etc.

Finally, even though the proposed system would use frequently
inaccurate "commercial databases" such as direct marketing records,
taxpayers would not be able to review their records to ensure that
they are accurate and up to date:  "This system is exempt from the
access and contest provisions of the Privacy Act."

EPIC is filing comments asking the IRS to reconsider its use of
commercial databases and to ensure that there are greater safeguards
on the collection and use of personal information.

A copy of the Federal Register notice is available at cpsr.org
/cpsr/privacy/epic/IRS_compliance_2000_notice_txt
Comments on the proposed system must be received by January 19, 1995,
and sent to Office of Disclosure, Internal Revenue Service, 1111 Conn.
Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20224. EPIC's Comments are available at
cpsr.org /cpsr/privacy/epic/epic_irs_compliance_2000_comments.txt

    --Paul J. Ste. Marie
      pstemari@well.sf.ca.us, pstemari@erinet.com