S. 4752: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to increase criminal and civil penalties for unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information, and for other purposes.

This bill would increase penalties for improperly sharing or exposing taxpayer information held by the IRS.

What changes it would make

• Higher criminal penalties for unauthorized disclosure: For several existing crimes involving unlawful disclosure or inspection of tax return information, the bill would raise the maximum fine from $5,000 to $250,000 and the maximum prison term from 5 years to 7 years.
• New felony offense for IRS contractors: It would create a new crime for IRS contractors that willfully fail to put in place or enforce required confidentiality safeguards, if that failure leads to an unauthorized disclosure of tax information.
• New penalties for contractors: A convicted contractor could be fined the greater of $500,000 or 25% of the total amount the contractor was paid under IRS contracts during the first fiscal year when it had access to the taxpayer data involved.
• Higher civil damages: The bill would increase the minimum civil damages a person can recover for certain unauthorized disclosures of tax information from $1,000 to $5,000.
• Notice to taxpayers: It would expand the circumstances in which the IRS must notify a taxpayer if their return information was unlawfully inspected or disclosed, including certain contractor failures that lead to a breach.

Other technical changes

• The bill updates related Internal Revenue Code sections to reflect the new contractor offense.
• It also makes the changes apply only to disclosures or inspections that happen after the bill becomes law.

Relevant Companies

None found