DOGE seeks access to IRS system with sensitive taxpayer data
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The Internal Revenue Service headquarters building in Washington, D.C. Photo: J. David Ake/Getty Images
An Internal Revenue Service employee connected with the Elon Musk-led DOGE team is set to seek access to an IRS system that includes sensitive taxpayer data, the Washington Post first reported Sunday and Axios can confirm.
Why it matters: President Trump has given DOGE powers to oversee government agencies and the federal workforce with the goal of cutting bloat, but his administration is facing several lawsuits accusing it of violating privacy laws in regards to accessing sensitive data.
The big picture: The Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS) enables certain IRS employees "to have instantaneous visual access to certain taxpayer accounts," per an agency post.
- It can be used for researching "account information and requesting returns" and automatically "generating notices, collection documents and other outputs," according to the IRS.
- The staffer who joined at the start of Trump's second term has now been onboarded, Axios understands.
- An administration official said the staffer is acting legally on the "DOGE mission" and "with the appropriate security clearances."
What they're saying: White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement first shared with NBC News that waste, "fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long."
- He added in the text message: "It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it. DOGE will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover as the American people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard earned tax dollars on."
Zoom out: The move comes as roughly 140 million people in the U.S. prepare to file individual tax returns by the April 15 deadline.
Zoom in: DOGE has been tasked with modernizing federal technology and software to "maximize governmental efficiency and productivity."
- Some of the IRS' software dates back to the 1960s.
- Representatives for the IRS did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment in the evening.
Go deeper: Trump orders "large-scale" cuts to federal workforce, gives DOGE more power
