A group of Democratic senators is urging federal law enforcement officials to investigate and prosecute some of the most popular online tax filing companies for allegedly sharing millions of taxpayer financial data with Meta and Google.
Tuesday, the senses. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and others have called on the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, Treasury Department and IRS to investigate whether TaxSlayer, H&R Block and TaxAct had violated the taxpayer. privacy laws by sharing sensitive user information with the two technology companies.
The senators also released their own report Wednesday detailing the charges, first raised by markup last november. The report alleges that for years, tax preparation companies have imbued their products with Meta and Google tracking pixels that revealed identifying information, such as full name, address and date of birth. of a user. The senators also suggest that some of the information provided, such as the forms a user accessed, could be used to show “whether taxpayers were eligible for certain deductions or exemptions.”
The senators say the companies have not received user consent to share this information, which could violate laws prohibiting preparers from sharing tax return information with third parties, especially since a large part of this data could be used for advertising purposes.
“The findings of this report reveal a shocking violation of taxpayer privacy by tax preparation companies and by large technology companies that appeared to violate taxpayers’ rights and may have violated the Taxpayer Privacy Act.” , the senators said in their letter on Tuesday.
TaxSlayer, H&R Block and TaxAct all confirmed that they shared “detailed taxpayer data” via the Meta pixel in the Senators report. After markup released its November findings, each of the companies said they had “removed or disabled” it from their websites.
