(IntegrityPress.org) – There has been a lot of recent controversy around the extra funding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will soon receive. Congress’ enormous healthcare and climate bill handed over $80 billion to the cause, and ordinary Americans worry the tax authority will spend that money scrutinizing the minute details of their financial affairs. A federal court recently ruled against the IRS in a case dealing with its monitoring of certain transactions, arming some people with a possible new tool against the agency.
On Thursday, August 18, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled in favor of plaintiff James Harper in the action he took against the IRS, its Commissioner Charles P. Rettig, and a number of agents. The verdict means Harper can sue the federal organization for allegedly gathering private data related to his virtual currency transactions in breach of the law.
According to the suit, the IRS didn’t have a valid subpoena when it collected data belonging to Harper and thousands of other cryptocurrency account holders. It also didn’t have valid reason to suspect he had committed an offense, nor did it furnish him with adequate notice of the collection beforehand.
More broadly, this outcome means members of the public will be able to bring the IRS to court in the event of data privacy infractions by its operatives.
Court Rules Taxpayers Can Sue IRS For Violating Constitutional Rights On Data Collection https://t.co/IxNAmH44Ou via @gatewaypundit
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) August 21, 2022
This development appears to give the average American taxpayer more leverage against the IRS, which could become valuable given the increased spending power the agency now has.
Copyright 2022, IntegrityPress.org
