I'm taking the liberty of forwarding this excellent RISKS posting. There are a couple of other related ones in the latest RISKS digest -- see comp.risks. -- Jeff oo -----------------------------cut /\ here------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 14:12:51 -0400 From: Carl Minie <CarlM@qsc1po.qstr.com> Subject: Re: DoD and IRS tax systems (Wexelblat, RISKS-18.23) As an ex-liberal and small-l libertarian, I submit that the true danger to privacy in the Republic is the practice of gathering detailed financial information from all (law-abiding) Americans under threat of asset confiscation and jail terms, and then giving tens of thousands of government employees access to this information in the course of their employment. I further submit that passing a few wimpy privacy laws and expecting them to prevent this information from being used for personal and political purposes is magical thinking. It doesn't take a genius to surmise that IRS data is used regularly for illegal purposes by everyone from the sitting President (of either party) down to grudge-bearing neighbors and ex-spouses. I believe the IRS attempted to assess the depth of the problem in their Southeastern Region (where my mother worked) at one time, and stopped at well over 300 violations. You or I would have ended up at Leavenworth, but all but a few of the most egregious violators were simply warned not to do it again. You can take voluntary action to keep yourself out of the TRW/ Equifax/TransUnion food chain and off junk mail lists...but Federal law requires you to remain in the IRS's gunsights for your entire productive lifespan. Neither party supports privacy when it means privacy from the government; it is a Democratic president who is enthusiastically supporting the FBI and NSA in their efforts to prevent American citizens from using encryption that they can't break, and to require that every phone, fax, and modem in the United States contain a chip that would allow government agencies to tap in at will. Do I need to add here that the very concept of economic privacy is anathema to those who believe that a portion of everything you earn, keep, spend, or invest belongs to them, and that not handing over the fraction they demand is stealing from them?
Is the Department of Star Wars and the $700 toilet seat really so excellent a contracting agency that they are the clear choice to handle IRS business?
I don't expect the IRS to be abolished anytime soon...but letting the DoD design its computer systems would be an acceptable second choice. The DoD may be expensive, but they're not very good. My fondest hope is that with a spanking new Government Issue computer system, the IRS that the GSA says can't figure out where 60% of its own budget goes won't be able to find 60% of mine. I don't like paying for $700 toilet seats (or $320,000 spotted owls) any more than you do. The solution which provides the smallest RISK to privacy is not to gather the data in the first place. If tax compliance is truly voluntary, then the IRS should trust that we are reading 21,000 pages of IRS rules and case law and sending in the correct amount. Long Pig ------------------------------