More on selling our tax information
CNN.com - Don't blindly sign on the dotted line - Mar 21, 2006:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Taxpayers not paying attention to the forms prepared for them by commercial tax preparers could find their personal financial information being sold more widely to data brokers and marketers.
The Internal Revenue Service is proposing to alter some privacy protections that consumer groups say would allow tax preparers greater leeway to sell personal financial information from the documents or even copies of the return itself.
The IRS has scheduled a hearing for April 4 on the proposal, part of a package of revisions the agency says are designed to safeguard information. One, for example, would require written taxpayer consent before a tax firm sends a return overseas for processing.