Taxpayer Data Protection Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 8292, the Taxpayer Data Protection Act. I am proud to vote for this bill that will enhance criminal penalties for the unlawful disclosure of taxpayer information.

Under Section 6103 of the tax code, tax returns and return information are confidential and may only be disclosed by the Internal Revenue Service and its employees, agents, or contractors if an exception applies.

Any unauthorized disclosure of tax information is a felony punishable by a maximum fine of $5,000 or imprisonment up to 5 years or both.

This bill significantly increases the maximum penalty to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to 10 years. It also makes clear that each taxpayer disclosed is treated as a separate violation subject to the maximum penalty.

This bill responds to one of the largest leaks of taxpayer information in the history of the IRS. While working at the IRS, a former contractor, Charles Littlejohn, unlawfully accessed and stole confidential tax information of the former President and thousands of wealthy taxpayers and disclosed it to two news organizations, including ProPublica. These news organizations then published a series of articles using the confidential tax information they were provided.

Earlier this year, Mr. Littlejohn was sentenced to 5 years in Federal prison for unlawfully accessing and disclosing tax information, which is the maximum sentence under current law.

This bill would have provided the judge with the discretion to increase the sentence, given the massive leak of information.

As required by law, the IRS has notified nearly 70,000 taxpayers who were impacted by this unauthorized disclosure. We must do all that we can to prevent this from happening again. This bill will provide taxpayers additional confidence in the IRS that their information is safe and protected.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Taxpayers must have full confidence that the IRS will safeguard their data. As Members of Congress, we must strengthen our laws to ensure that every American's tax information is protected.

This bill increases the maximum penalty for unauthorized disclosure and will serve as a big deterrent for folks who may think about breaking the law.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' in support of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source