Welcome to The Logoff. Today I have an update on the fight over your tax data, where the Trump administration has backed off a plan to give a DOGE staffer access to ultra-sensitive tax information.
Wait, what did the White House want? The White House wanted the IRS to allow a DOGE team member to access the system that contains taxpayers’ records, personal identification numbers, and banking information, supposedly to fight fraud.
IRS officials were alarmed by a plan that would hand an outsider access to tax data at the individual level. Critics sued to block the plan, arguing it posed massive privacy risks and opened the door to abuses of power. (We covered this on Tuesday, if you want to do a little backreading.)
So is that plan going forward? No, or, at least, not in its most extreme form. Under an agreement between the IRS and the White House, the DOGE staffer will get access to some tax data — but the most highly sensitive information will remain off limits, according to the Washington Post.
Specifically, if the staffer wants access to tax returns, he’ll only be able to get information that doesn’t allow him to identify any individual taxpayers, according to a copy of the agreement viewed by the New York Times.
What’s the big picture? Typically, only a select few career officials have access to the individual taxpayer database, and the plan to hand it over to a DOGE staffer set off major alarm bells. For now, those concerns have been partially allayed, and your tax information is a touch more secure.
And with that, it’s time to log off …
It’s choose-your-own adventure Friday. If you’re feeling curious, here’s a fascinating podcast about why we twitch in our sleep. It turns out, answering that question has “fundamentally shifted how we understand the relationship between the brain and the body.” If you’re worn out and need a laugh, here’s three glorious minutes of Nate Bargatze’s early standup, including a joke about Pluto that gets me every time. Take good care this weekend. See you back here Monday.
