Tax Return Privacy...

I got a rude awakening this morning. Sometimes I miss stuff that I shouldn’t and maybe this story has been around every year and I’ve just missed it. As a “quasi libertarian” I generally come down on the side of privacy rights in almost every instance unless you are planning to blow my neighbors and myself up. We take for granted a certain amount of personal privacy when we deal with our Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants and Financial Advisors. Why? Because those confidentiality considerations are built into the “ethical” obligations of those who practice those professions.
I’ve always done my own taxes. Partly because I am “cheap”. I don’t think tax law is that complicated for a lay person who isn’t seeking a bunch of unusual shelters or ways to hide your money from the government. (The two audits I’ve gone through in 40 + years of doing my own returns aside…that’s another story). Just like I pick by own stock equities I rely on myself to prepare my 1040’s.
This morning I discovered that those of you who use "professional tax preparers" like H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt Tax Service (the two largest) have been giving up the privacy of your tax returns. Not to the government but to other businesses who have an interest in examining your return and are willing to pay them for the privilege.
How can they do this? In 1974 the IRS adopted rules which allowed the tax preparers to share your information with “affiliates” or to sell it to third parties. When you sign documents for the tax preparer permission to share the information is buried in the fine print.
The IRS is holding a hearing today about complaints about the abuse on the part of the tax preparers. Proposed are new rules that require explicit consent forms to be signed before the preparers share such information from now on. Resisting the new consent forms are the lobbyists for the preparers including the two famous ones listed above. What a bunch of jerks who clearly don’t have the best interests of their clients at heart.