IRS accidentally reveals confidential information of 120,000 taxpayers

IRS discloses confidential data of 120,000 taxpayers. An error that could have unintended consequences, although the IRS minimizes the scope.

It’s called a dumpling. Some 120,000 Form 990-T taxpayers are expected to contact the IRS — the US federal government agency that collects income tax and miscellaneous taxes — in the coming weeks and let them know that the agency has inadvertently disclosed their information on its website.

IRS reveals confidential data of 120,000 taxpayers

Tax-exempt organizations that may be paid in cryptocurrency in some states, including charitable and religious groups, must complete Form 990-T. As The Wall Street Journal points out, some individuals must also complete this file. And while organizational files should be public, individual files don’t have to be.

A mistake that can have sad consequences

The agency explains that the error was caused by a glitch in the code last year when Form 990-T became available for online completion. As you can guess, the bug caused private data to be mixed with public data, and all of it ended up being available for download. It was only in recent weeks that an employee discovered the problem and launched an investigation that removed data that should not have been public.

Although the IRS downplays the scope

The IRS press release explains that this data breach contains, among other things, the names of individuals and the contact information of companies. The affected taxpayers’ Social Security numbers, as well as their individual income and other information that could affect their credit, were not released. The magazine, which was able to download some of this data before it was deleted, explains that it is also possible to find individuals’ income in their individual retirement savings accounts.

Although the IRS has already deleted the data in question, the IRS is still investigating the issue. Anna Canfield Roth of the Treasury Department also explained that the agency “requested the IRS to conduct a rapid review of its processes to ensure that the necessary safeguards are in place to prevent such disclosure of undisclosed data.”