Drop That 1040 Form!
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Drop That 1040 Form!
The badass IRS agents you’ve never heard of.
Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009 - 4:31pm
And getting on the waitlist isn't easy, either. Most of the agents are not existing IRS employees but, rather, apply straight out of college. To qualify, you need a bachelor's degree, five semesters of accounting, and three semesters of finance/business/tax courses, and you must be under the age of 37. From there, you'll have to pass a drug test, a medical examination, a background investigation, a tax check, and an audit of your past three tax returns.
Then, once you get off the waiting list, you're sent to six months of training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia to learn alongside other federal agents.* You're taught how to handcuff, how to execute a search warrant, and, perhaps toughest of all, how to interpret criminal tax law. Once you graduate training, you're whisked off to an IRS outpost somewhere in the country (you don't have much choice where), and you'll work under the watchful eye of a mentor for two years. After that, you're no longer a rookie. You're a respected member of the force.
Even though interest is high, the criminal investigations division doesn't just wait for recruits to find it; it goes and finds the recruits. An IRS employee, who chose to remain anonymous because of IRS rules about talking to the media, told The Big Money that at a recent IRS conference the criminal investigations team had a table set up to try to convince employees from other divisions to become special agents. "Here, hold a gun!" the recruiters said to the passers-by. They had body armor, handcuffs, and fake pistols to play with and handed out promotional pamphlets advertising the program.
The pamphlets are a work of corporate art. The images inside emphasize teamwork and camaraderie between the recruits. There's an image of a line of special agents at target practice (that picture accompanies this article). There are other snapshots of everyone exercising together, competing on an obstacle course, and learning in a classroom. Then there are those that show special agents on the job: staking out a suspect's residence with binoculars, rummaging through financial files, and making a breakthrough with your colleagues as you stare at a laptop. It manages to illustrate all three acts of a really cheesy buddy-cop movie.
Above all, though, the brochure suggests that working for the IRS doesn't have to be boring. It can also be really edgy and exciting—especially when you get to carry around a gun.
*Correction, April 23, 2009: Originally, this article implied FBI agents trained in Georgia. They do not.
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IRS Special Agents Illegally Release Citizen's Tax Returns
IRS and Justice Department Illegally Release Citizen’s Tax Returns to Alleged Criminal
The Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), in case number 62-0907-0071, is investigating the release of over 970,000 documents by the government to the defendant in U.S. v. Jacquot (CR 08-1171) in the Southern District of California. The documents released contain thousands of disclosures of tax returns, social security numbers, and other sensitive data of citizens and businesses.
The recipient of these documents is David Jacquot, an attorney, retired Army officer and disabled, decorated combat veteran. He has been accused of filing false tax returns, a charge he vehemently disputes.
Pursuant to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Mr. Jacquot requested the government provide him copies of specific items of relevant evidence held by the government. Rather than respond to these specific requests, Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Faith Devine provided Mr. Jacquot electronic copies of 971,123 documents in 1,271 folders. The complaint alleges that AUSA Devine provided all these documents in an attempt to bury the relevant information amongst so many other documents that review of the same would be impossible before trial. Any meaningful review of nearly 1 million documents would likely take a year or more. The documents disclosed are packed with tax returns and other sensitive data of former employees, financial advisors, customers and vendors of the xelan family of companies. The complaint also describes how this information had been released to other individuals in addition to Mr. Jacquot.
When Mr. Jacquot realized what had been improperly provided to him, he contacted TIGTA, stating “None of these people have ever met me or likely even know that I exist, yet their social security numbers and other confidential tax return information has been provide to me (and others).”
Tax returns and information relating to tax return (such as social security numbers) is considered confidential under federal law. The IRS can only release this information to the Department of Justice under strict conditions, and release to third parties is subject to even more strict rules. The complaint describes how IRS Supervisory Special Agent Sara Brana, IRS Special Agent John Weeks, IRS Special Agent Van Nguyen, and other IRS employees willfully and improperly provided confidential tax return information to the Department of Justice. The complaint then describes how AUSA Devine and other IRS and Justice Department officials willfully released confidential tax return information to Mr. Jacquot and others. Willful unauthorized disclosure of confidential tax return information is a felony offense carrying a maximum penalty of 5 years in jail for each improper disclosure. Federal law also requires mandatory firing of government employees found guilty of willful unauthorized disclosures.
The TIGTASpecial Agent handling the investigation is Daniel Munoz, telephone number: (619) 615-9553; email: Daniel.Munoz@tigta.treas.gov. A copy of the complaint filed with TIGTA (with sensitive tax information removed) can be found at www.jacquotlaw.com/vindictive-prosecution.html.
TO VIEW THE ACTUAL PRESS RELEASE VISIT: http://www.prweb.com/releases/irs-unauthorized/disclosure-tax-return/prw...