Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US Federal Revenue, will provide tax data on immigrants to US authorities who conduct criminal investigations, stating that this will support President Donald Trump’s promise to deport illegally in the US. A memorandum of understanding was signed on Monday (7) between the Treasury Department, which supervises the IRS, and the internal security department to share information in response to valid requests, according to documents in a process brought by four immigration groups seeking to slow down the mass deportation policies of Trump administration.
The groups have sued to prevent IRS from sharing tax information on millions of non -citizens who do not have social insurance numbers, but can pay taxes after obtaining individual taxpayer identification numbers. Although federal authorities claim that the agreement includes safeguards and applies only to criminal matters, immigrant groups and inspectors said this could reverse IRS longtime privacy policies.
“The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) only allows the legal exchange of information to taxpayers who are under criminal investigation or subject to criminal proceedings,” said the Tax Division of the Department of Justice into a judicial document. This agreement “simply establishes procedures and limits to ensure that such requests and subsequent transfers of information are treated legally and safely.”
Access to these sensitive data could “expose millions of taxpayers to aggressive tactics for the application of the administration’s immigration law,” the groups said, including the United Labor Center in the complaint. IRS computer systems “houses the largest single source of current names and addresses of individuals not authorized to be present in the United States.”
A Treasury spokesman said the agreement establishes a “clear and safe process to support the efforts to apply the law in combating illegal immigration.”
Section 6103
“The foundations for this Mou are based on long-standing authorities granted by Congress, which serve to protect the privacy of Americans compliance with law while speeding up the ability to pursue criminals,” said the spokesman. The groups that have moved the process also include Immigrant Solidarity Dupage, we are uniden united and even Action for the City. They stated that a section of the Internal Revenue Code, known as 6103, prohibits the Treasury Department to share declaration information for immigration civil application. Instead, it allows information sharing in investigations and criminal proceedings.
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In 2017, the complaint states, the IRS said the code did not allow it to share tax data with the US immigration and customs service. “To consider and enter a information sharing agreement,“ IRS “would have to change its interpretation of section 6103” and provide “a grounded explanation for this change,” the groups said in the complaint.
In a document presented on Monday, Justice Department lawyers said the memorandum of understanding provides a framework to share tax information on criminal investigations related to immigration issues. For example, they said, “Certain foreigners who remain intentionally in the United States for more than 90 days after a final order of removal can be arrested for up to four years,” and “a foreigner who illegally reentry in the United States after a legal order of removal can be arrested for up to two years.”
Solve problems
A spokesman for the internal security department said the government is “sharing information throughout the federal government to solve problems.” “The sharing of information between agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, to determine which threats to public safety and terrorism may exist so that we can neutralize them, remove these individuals from voter lists, as well as identify which public benefits these foreigners are using taxpayers,” said the spokesman.
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The Tax Law Center of the University of New York Law School said in a report published last week that an IRS data sharing agreement and the internal security department could weaken voluntary tax compliance, a US tax system pillar. This can dissuade people to declare taxes for fear of application of the immigration law, even by mistake, potentially costing billions in lost revenue. The measure also breaks decades of IRS guarantees that immigrant tax data would remain confidential.
The case is the Center for United Workers v. BESSENT, 25-CV-677, US District Court (Columbia District).
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