Judge hits pause on IRS sharing taxpayer information with ICE
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday temporarily blocked the IRS from sharing taxpayer information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ruling the practice “unlawful.”
The court “concludes that plaintiffs have demonstrated a strong likelihood that the IRS’s adoption of the address sharing policy and subsequent sharing of taxpayer information with ICE was unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a 94-page ruling.
“Furthermore, plaintiffs demonstrated that the IRS’s disclosure of confidential taxpayer address information to ICE was contrary to law because it violated several provisions of the Internal Revenue Code,” the judge wrote.
The order said that as of early August, the IRS had disclosed information on nearly 47,000 taxpayers.
The Treasury Department and the IRS did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday evening.
The order suspended the policy that established the sharing of taxpayer data pending further review, and temporarily barred the IRS, the Treasury Department and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from sharing any tax return information with the Department of Homeland Security, although the judge listed some exceptions with judicial approval.
Six people have held the top job at the agency so far this year, with Bessent becoming the latest acting commissioner after President Donald Trump removed Billy Long in August.
Other administration agencies have agreed to share information to facilitate immigration enforcement. The Department of Health and Human Services said in a memo Friday that it intends to share data with ICE to help the administration weed out undocumented immigrants.
