Cnn
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The Ministry of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) – The special entity created by President Donald Trump and managed by Elon Musk to cause greater “government efficiency and productivity” – has been pressure for authorized access to IRS data systems In the middle of the tax- classification season.
The IRS, of course, has extensive and complex data systems containing very sensitive personal and financial information on more than 100 million declarants and individual companies. These systems are often interconnected and make changes to one can have a training effect on others, according to Terry Milholland, who was director of IRS technology from 2008 to 2016.
The simple fact that Doge seeks such quick access has been alarming for many people for a certain number of reasons – including the potential that the members of the DOGE team can access certain types of tax data illegally, even if inadvertently – or illegally expose this data to third parties. In addition, neither the legislators nor the public had a clear meaning on the Doge plans to use the data to which he accesses. (The alarm is so large that a group of defenders of taxpayers, small businesses and unions brought an action in the event of an emergency before the Federal Court to “stop access without hindrance and without DOGE law to data Personal at levels (which) endanger the intimacy of hundreds of millions of Americans.
In addition to these serious concerns, DOGE can most immediately present risks for Americans who prepare to deposit their taxes now, while the group press the IRS for access to its systems, noted John Koskinen, who has been a commissioner of the IRS at the end of December 2013 in mid-November 2017.
“They run the risk of inadvertently triggering errors and closing the system (tax deposit),” said Koskinen. He noted that even the IRS did not usually shine with its systems during the deposit season, because everyone’s priority at the agency is to ensure a fluid experience. “I don’t see the emergency or the rush. Systems are not going anywhere.
And, he added: “I think that anyone who knows it and an understanding of the complexity of the season of tax declarations would remain away” – at least until the beginning of summer, when most of the Over 140 million IRS returns awaited will have been filed.
With DOGE at IRS, what could make it more difficult for a declarant to obtain his reimbursement in a timely manner, to search for his tax data online, to download a document or even to produce his declaration?
Distractions: The simple presence of DOGE at the agency in the middle of the tax deposit season takes the time and the energy of IRS employees who, otherwise, should be fully focused on the proper functioning of systems for the tax season , said Koskinen.
Lack of sufficient training to use systems: Whatever the members of the Doge Systems team, you have to browse, you need a lot of training to do so, said Mark Mazur, former director of the IRS Office of Research, Analysis and Statistics and former Deputy Secretary to tax policy in the United States Treasury. “You would need some IRS employees to help you, (especially) not kiss something.”
Erroneous interpretations and erroneous orders: Insofar as DOGE wants to enrage what it supposes that waste, fraud and abuse, there is a high risk that DOGE members can misinterpret the data they consult. Unless you have work experience with data and understand the complexities, for example, a particular tax measure, it is easy to misunderstand what the data you look at, said Mazur.
And, whether it is a member of the DOGE team manually ties a given system or orders an IRS employee to stop a given function, there is a system of interruption of the system.
For example, Mazur said: “Someone from Doge could say that this group obtaining a refund must be examined more.” Or, he noted, someone could see that some tax credit is paid to a group of declarants who do not have social security numbers, and they can wrongly assume that it is Fraud, even if there are circumstances in which the IRS attributes different IDs to the declarants who are eligible to claim a given advantage.
In simple terms: “They will think that they know what they are doing and they won’t,” said Mazur.
Milholland said that he was not comfortable with the idea of an outside group like DOGE, possibly, to make changes to the systems with which they have no experience.
“You must have in -depth knowledge of how the parts come together. It is a well-designed machine years ago, “he said. “If Doge wants to enter and make changes, God helps us. If they want to read alone for political purposes – very well. But do not give them writing in writing.
In fact, noted Milholland, IRS career employees who best understand systems – and, in particular, the oldest programming languages still used to maintain the proper functioning of data systems – approach retirement. If they decide that they have enough and leave early-or are pushed prematurely through the dismissals commanded by Doge, “you do not have people who can change this kind of thing,” he said.
This concern also talks about Mazur’s greatest concern with Doge’s precipitated thrust to enter IRS systems.
“One thing that sums up my concerns is the pharmosy of Silicon Valley Tech to” move things and things “. I am concerned about the potential large-scale consequences if they break things like IRS data systems or the payment systems of the federal government, because they could affect a large number of ordinary Americans, “he declared.
In particular to this tax deposit season, Koskinen notes that any change in the middle of flows in data systems or the potential layoffs of the IRS which can materially affect the experience of deposit of taxpayers will be noticed. “He may make life very difficult for declarants and income preparers. Declarants are not only Democrats. They are republicans and self -employed. It doesn’t make sense, “he said.
