Treasury agrees to block DOGE's access to personal taxpayer data at IRS

Source: Washington Post

Treasury agrees to block DOGE’s access to personal taxpayer data at IRS
U.S. DOGE Service reps will see anonymized tax data, not individual returns.

February 20, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. ESTToday at 5:00 p.m. EST


Elon Musk carries a stuffed Air Force One as he walks between meetings at the White House on Thursday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

By Jacob Bogage

The Trump White House and Treasury Department officials have agreed to prohibit the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing personal taxpayer data, according to two people familiar with the arrangement, heading off a brewing privacy crisis at the tax agency.

Gavin Kliger, a software engineer with Elon Musk’s DOGE effort assigned to the IRS, will have read-only access to anonymized tax data, the same access granted to academic researchers and IT professionals who work on IRS systems, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of the agreement.

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By Jacob Bogage
Jacob Bogage covers economic policy in Congress for The Washington Post, where he's worked since 2015. Contact him securely on Signal: jacobbogage.87. follow on X@jacobbogage


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/20/doge-irs-taxpayer-data-privacy/