"The Internal Revenue Service didn't always properly notify taxpayers after inadvertently disclosing personal information, according to a Treasury Department audit released Thursday.
Not all citizens were notified that their personal information had been released, in a sample of 98 case files from the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years that the IRS had flagged as inadvertent disclosures of personal taxpayer information, according to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Taxpayer Administration.
In total the IRS processed 4,081 inadvertent disclosures during the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years, of which 1,493 required taxpayer notification. The IRS collects personal and financial information from more than 142 million people.
The omission occurred in 5% of the cases in the report's sample because IRS employees hadn't documented the name of the taxpayer whose information had been disclosed. In an additional 10% of the cases, the taxpayer wasn't notified because only tax account information was released, which the IRS does not consider "personally identifiable information."
The audit also noted that taxpayers weren't notified in a timely manner. In 74% of the incidents that required notification, the IRS didn't alert taxpayers within 45 days. Letters sent to these taxpayers from the IRS took an average of 86 days.
The IRS systems are also missing some cases of personal information disclosure, the auditors reported, after finding 815 incidents that the IRS's four computer systems hadn't flagged.
The Inspector General made four recommendations to the IRS, including educating employees on the need to gather enough information on individuals whose information has been released. Tax account information should be treated as sensitive personal information as well, the audit advised, and taxpayers should be notified more promptly. The tax agency agreed to the recommendations."...
via Instapundit
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