A 32% Error Rate

The Inspector General of the Treasury Department issued a report that found that the IRS was improperly responding to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 32% of the time.  This may not sound like a big deal, but it is.  The Inspector General reports that in two-thirds of these failures, the IRS gave out sensitive personal information about taxpayers that are required by law to be kept private.  Think about that.  Freedom of Information requests are simple things.  Someone sends in a written request to the IRS for particular documents and the IRS is required to make the documents available if appropriate.  In 21% of the cases reviewed at random by the Inspector General, however, the IRS sends out private info about taxpayers that the IRS is not allowed to disclose.  Imagine what the government would do to a private organization that broke the law one-fifth of the time and violated the privacy of those with whom it dealt.

The Inspector General also found that in about 11% of the cases, the IRS did not bother to perform an adequate search to gather the requested information.  At least for those cases, no one's personal tax information was wrongfully given out by the IRS.

It is worth noting that this review has nothing to do with the IRS scandal about its wrongfully targeting conservative and Christian organizations.  Lois Lerner is not involved here.  The failure found by the Inspector General is just the IRS operating as usual.  It seems oblivious to the legal requirement that it keep taxpayer information confidential.  Once again, the federal government has shown itself to be totally out of control.