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submitted 2 weeks ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Summary

Elon Musk has requested access to the IRS's Integrated Data Retrieval System, which contains personal tax information for millions of Americans.

The request has not yet been granted but has raised alarm among privacy experts and government officials.

Critics fear Musk could misuse the data, especially given his existing federal contracts. The IRS is considering a memorandum to permit access, despite strict rules against unauthorized viewing.

A federal judge has already blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury data, but other agencies remain vulnerable.

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[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 144 points 2 weeks ago

For what reason? How does accessing individual taxpayers private income/tax information allow you weed out wasteful government spending?

[-] jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.works 104 points 2 weeks ago

By arbitrarily denying regular people their tax returns for the sake of "saving money"

[-] Chozo@fedia.io 68 points 2 weeks ago

Yup. Tax refunds are about to become a thing of the past. For the bottom 99%, that is.

[-] fluxion@lemmy.world 51 points 2 weeks ago

IRS audits for politically motivated reasons are about to become a thing.

[-] Eggyhead@fedia.io 19 points 2 weeks ago

And tampering for cover-ups.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago

I don't think there's anything "arbitrary" about who they fuck over.

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[-] 5in1k@lemm.ee 75 points 2 weeks ago

Increasingly I am only seeing one solution to this Musk problem.

[-] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago

Piano wire and a train station?

[-] WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago
[-] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago

It is a classic for the Russian Oligarchs...what the hell, it's traditional.

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[-] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago

Increasingly I am seeing Musk as the one solution to this problem:

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[-] capital_sniff@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah we need to start taxing these rich grifters.

[-] 5in1k@lemm.ee 28 points 2 weeks ago

Yes taxes, I mean taxes.

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[-] PetteriPano@lemmy.world 67 points 2 weeks ago

I think he should get access to it.

I think everyone should get access to it.

That's how we do it in Scandinavia. It's been good for fighting corruption.

If your neighbour has a brand new Lamborghini in his driveway, while filling an income of 20k€ the last year. Maybe ask the IRS to look a bit closer at his finances.

I use it to see how much my colleagues make, so I have a leg to stand on in salary negotiations.

[-] Snapz@lemmy.world 46 points 2 weeks ago

That's not how it works here... Don't pretend and welcome his horseshit. This is probably about making a personal enemies list

[-] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 33 points 2 weeks ago

In a fair democracy, sure. But the US ain’t that; I wouldn’t be surprised if they used donation write-offs to target political opponents.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago

The only way the Trump administration is going to do anything about people cheating on their taxes is to pardon them for it.

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[-] DogPeePoo@lemm.ee 53 points 2 weeks ago
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[-] adm@lemm.ee 43 points 2 weeks ago

Great, I'm about to get audited by the billionaire that probably doesn't pay taxes. Lovely.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

Even better, the "audit" will be done by some teenager named "Big Balls".

I'm sure they have the wisdom, the experience, and level-headed presence of mind to properly deal with that kind of responsibility.

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[-] wreckus@lemmy.ca 39 points 2 weeks ago

From someone who took Records and Information Management years ago, this is a huge red flag and everyone in the US should be alarmed and pissed off about this.

Elon and his DOGE fools have no right to have access to American’s IRS records.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

What? You don't think some teenager with a stupid online nickname and Wicked Cool 7331 Hax0r Coding Skillz has the right to your data and my data?

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[-] Alteon@lemmy.world 38 points 2 weeks ago

They are worming their way through the various departments looking for something....dirt on their opponents?

[-] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 51 points 2 weeks ago

Probably dirt on everyone. And just to farm for their own purposes. Collate all the federal data, pump it into his grok LLM, and try to create his own file on every consumer.

[-] einlander@lemmy.world 27 points 2 weeks ago

AI generated dossiers, terrifying. Imagine all the crimes the AI can hallucinate a person did. And with generative audiovisual AI can manufacturer the evidence.

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[-] adarza@lemmy.ca 23 points 2 weeks ago

hell.

the fuck.

NO.

[-] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago

Fuck Musk and ship him back to South Africa without a US passport.

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[-] wirebeads@lemmy.ca 20 points 2 weeks ago

He wants to live like common people. He wants to see whatever common people see.

— he’s never paid any tax, so he obviously wants to live vicariously with the eyes of the poors. Not as one though, just wants to get closer to understanding them by looking at their tax returns, illegally.

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[-] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago

I'm shocked they even asked

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[-] Mihies@programming.dev 19 points 2 weeks ago

At last we'll see Trump's tax records 👀🍿

[-] hansolo@lemm.ee 19 points 2 weeks ago

All Americans should freeze your credit immediately.

[-] NickwithaC@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago

All Americans should have their credit frozen in general. You can unfreeze it any time you want to make a big finance decision like a mortgage but there's no reason to just leave it out there the rest of the time.

[-] hansolo@lemm.ee 8 points 2 weeks ago

That ads friction to the economy, which is why credit was invented.

If we all just started a grassroots campaign in which EVERYONE freezes their credit in March, it will not be awesome for banks.

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[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago
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[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago

So given that his little team of unqualified racist have already proven to leak classified data and can't secure a server with even basic security that someone on the homeserver community would do, it would be funny if this is how Trump's tax returns would come out to light.

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[-] 3dmvr@lemm.ee 12 points 2 weeks ago

Hes good at doing things that look effective to slow ppl

[-] match@pawb.social 12 points 2 weeks ago

Read only access, right?

Right?

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 weeks ago

How would that help make the government more efficient? What is his justification?

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[-] Nougat@fedia.io 12 points 2 weeks ago

Maybe the sovcits were inadvertently on to something.

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[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

The only positive thing here is that they ask instead of just take.

[-] watson387@sopuli.xyz 11 points 2 weeks ago
[-] Iheartcheese@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago

He'll get it

[-] wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io 9 points 2 weeks ago

Fucking called it.

https://fedia.io/m/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world/t/1804942/Repeat-after-me-The-power-they-HAVE-is-the-POWER

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this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2025
619 points (98.7% liked)

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