Should You Be Worried About The IRS Reading Your Emails?

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Should You Be Worried About The IRS Reading Your Emails?

By The BIDaWIZ Team on April 19th, 2013 at 5:56 pm

The IRS has come under fire of late due to recently released documents made public by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The documents indicate that the IRS does not need a warrant to access a taxpayer’s electronic communications such as emails and text messages. The IRS has since denied those claims. Should you be worried about the IRS reading your personal or company emails?

The IRS recently released documents
The ACLU provided the public with documents clearly indicating that the IRS can review taxpayer emails without notice or a warrant. Specifically, the documents cite that the Fourth Amendment does not protect emails because Internet users “do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications.”

The IRS’s response
The IRS acting commissioner, Steve Miller, recently released a statement in which he indicated that for criminal investigations, the IRS obtains a search warrant prior to requesting that an internet service provider allow access to the taxpayer’s emails. In addition, he stated that the IRS doesn’t request email information when the case is civil. According to the IRS’s position, the situation would have to be criminal fraud or another type of criminal activity for the IRS to review emails.

Should I be worried?
When the IRS was asked to respond to the documents detailing that agents review electronic communications without warrant, the IRS denied them. In addition, the agency stated that they plan to clarify their procedures in the IRS handbook to explain that they do not review taxpayer emails or text messages without a warrant. We think this is a positive response and likely indicates that the IRS won’t review taxpayer emails unless a warrant is provided. Still, taxpayers should be very careful in what they send and keep in their email accounts as it relates to their finances and taxes.

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