Skip to content

Judicial Watch, Inc. is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, which promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.

Judicial Watch, Inc. is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, which promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.

Because no one
is above the law!

Donate

Corruption Chronicles

IRS Puts Americans At Risk Of ID Theft

The U.S. government agency that collects taxes regularly puts Americans at risk of identity theft by not properly disposing of papers with personally identifiable information, instead throwing it trash bins outside its various locations. 

Sensitive documents containing the data of U.S. taxpayers were found in waste containers and dumpsters outside Internal Revenue Service offices throughout the nation, according to a Treasury Inspector General report, which concludes that information provided by more than 130 million taxpayers is not adequately protected from identity theft. 

That’s because the agency hires contractors to dispose of the documents and doesn’t bother following through with how it actually happens. For the report investigators visited eight IRS offices in Arizona, Maryland, New York and Utah and interviewed managers across the country from September 2007 to May 2008.

At every location investigators found documents containing personally identifiable information in regular waste containers and/or dumpsters. Regional IRS officials rarely bother checking if files are properly destroyed nor do they consistently verify that contract employees with access to sensitive documents pass background checks. 

Just last month the IRS came under fire when a separate Treasury Inspector General report revealed that the agency has given illegal immigrants—without valid Social Security numbers—billions of dollars in tax refunds they obviously don’t qualify for. That investigation also exposed how the IRS allows companies that employ foreigners to file taxes using Tax Identification Numbers, rather than the required Social Security, even though the law forbids it. 


Related

New Court Victory in Fani Willis Documents Case

VICTORY: Court Orders DOJ to Provide Info on Jack Smith’s Communications with Fani Willis Judicial Watch Sues for Records on Kamala Harris Travel Costs Judicial Watch Asks Supreme ...

Judicial Watch, Allied Educational Foundation File Amici Brief Asking Supreme Court to Eliminate Woke,…

Press Releases | February 07, 2025
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed in the U.S. Supreme Court an amici curiae (friend of the court) brief along with the Allied Educational Foundation (AEF),...

Judge orders Trump prosecutors to dish in collusion case

In The News | February 05, 2025
From Washington Examiner: Judicial Watch had been seeking communications between Smith’s office and the Fulton County district attorney “requesting or receiving federal funds or o...