Post #2222448

Musk and his team want access to the IRS's taxpayer records because having taxpayer records enables threats and extortion. Did you get behind on your taxes, say, and work out a payment plan with the IRS? Well, if Trump's team knows about that, now they something to hold over you -- for example, something to threaten you with if you continue your public criticism of the Trump administration. The beauty of Musk, from Trump's point of view, is that Trump doesn't have to do the dirty work (he never does). He can outsource that to people who know how to do data processing at scale. This is why the law is strict and crystal clear in limiting access: even within the Federal government, only a very few people can have access to individual taxpayer records, and only for certain specific purposes. Whether Trump "authorizes" it or not, Musk and his team will be breaking the law if they access those records. That needs to not be forgotten. I wish reporters writing about this would include discussion of the very strong legal protections already in place, and make it clear that there is no exception for rampaging billionaires. Also, FWIW, by far the largest "inefficiency" at the IRS is that the agency was historically underfunded and thus is unable to perform sufficient audits on those wealthy enough to arrange their taxes in complex ways that are designed to bamboozle the IRS. That's why the Biden administration increased the funding (which, of course, costs nothing because it results in the collection of far more new taxes -- the IRS doesn't spend a dollar to collect a dollar, it spends more like .0025 dollars to collect a dollar). No doubt that is exactly what Musk and Trump would like to undo, along, of course, with getting personal financial data on everyone in the U.S. in order to have more weapons against more people. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/business/musk-irs-doge.html