Musk’s DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS

Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is seeking access to a heavily-guarded Internal Revenue Service system that includes detailed financial information about every taxpayer, business and nonprofit in the country, according to three people familiar with the activities, sparking alarm within the tax agency.

Under pressure from the White House, the IRS is considering a memorandum of understanding that would give officials from DOGE — which stands for Department of Government Efficiency — broad access to tax-agency systems, property and datasets. Among them is the Integrated Data Retrieval System, or IDRS, which enables tax agency employees to access IRS accounts — including personal identification numbers — and bank information. It also lets them enter and adjust transaction data and automatically generate notices, collection documents and other records.

According to a draft of the memorandum obtained by The Washington Post, DOGE software engineer Gavin Kliger is set to work at the IRS for 120 days, though the tax agency and the White House can renew his deployment for the same duration. His primary goal at the IRS is to provide engineering assistance and IT modernization consulting.

The agreement requires that Kliger maintain confidentiality of tax return information, shield it from unauthorized access and destroy any such information shared with him upon the completion of his IRS deployment.

IDRS access is extremely limited — taxpayers who have had their information wrongfully disclosed or even inspected are entitled by law to monetary damages — and the request for DOGE access has raised deep concern within the IRS, according to three people familiar with internal agency deliberations who, like others in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

It was unclear Sunday evening whether acting IRS commissioner Doug O’Donnell or other IRS or Treasury Department officials had granted IDRS access.

O’Donnell’s predecessor, Danny Werfel, resigned on Jan. 20, after Trump announced plans to replace him with former congressman Billy Long (R-Missouri). Long has not yet been confirmed by the Senate.

The news comes as roughly 150 million taxpayers prepare to file returns by the April 15 deadline. In his first term, Trump openly mused about sending IRS agents after political opponents, leaving agency officials on edge about the IRS’s independence.

The tax agency’s systems are widely considered antiquated — many were built using computer coding language from the 1960s — and overhauling the agency’s IT is in line with DOGE’s mandate to modernize government technology. IRS contractors are generally provided system access to repair or maintain IDRS and similar data systems.

But it’s highly unusual to grant political appointees access to personal taxpayer data, or even programs adjacent to that data, experts say. IRS commissioners traditionally do not have IDRS access. The same goes for the national taxpayer advocate, the agency’s internal consumer watchdog, according to Nina Olson, who served in the role from 2001 to 2019.

“The information that the IRS has is incredibly personal. Someone with access to it could use it and make it public in a way, or do something with it, or share it with someone else who shares it with someone else, and your rights get violated,” said Olson.

A Trump administration official said DOGE personnel needed IDRS access because DOGE staff are working to “eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, and improve government performance to better serve the people.”

The official said the “DOGE mission … to bring much-needed efficiency to our bureaucracy” is being carried out “legally and with the appropriate security clearances.”

A security clearance is not a sufficient credential for access to taxpayer systems, according to IRS procedures. IDRS access is governed by compelling needs for tax administration, not national security.

In a statement, White House spokesman Harrison Fields told The Post: “Waste, fraud and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long. It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it. DOGE will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover as the American people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard earned tax dollars on.”

Representatives from the Treasury Department and IRS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kliger arrived unannounced at IRS headquarters on Thursday and was named senior adviser to the acting commissioner. IRS officials were told to treat Kliger and other DOGE officials as contractors, two people familiar said.

A White House official said Sunday, however, that DOGE personnel at the IRS were full agency employees and not contractors.

Kliger met with Ken Corbin, the IRS’s chief of taxpayer services, and Heather Maloy, the agency’s top enforcement official, during his first day at the agency’s headquarters, according to several of the people familiar with the meetings. The agency is preparing for Trump-ordered layoffs, as soon as this week, that could hit roughly 10,000 probationary employees.