Data sharing and legal battlesFeb 26, 2026Washington, DC
Court finds IRS unlawfully disclosed taxpayer data about 42,695 times
A federal judge found that the IRS's automated process violated tax-privacy law about 42,695 times. In those cases, the IRS matched people by tax ID and gave ICE their last known addresses without first confirming that ICE had supplied the taxpayer address federal law required.
The IRS disclosed 47,289 taxpayer addresses to ICE through two matching methods. It used tax-identification-number matching for 42,695 of them, or 90.3%, without checking whether ICE's request included the taxpayer's address. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found that each disclosure made through that process violated 26 U.S.C. § 6103(i)(2).
That procedural finding is different from the number of requests containing information that later proved incomplete or insufficient. The IRS told the court that its review of all 47,289 requests then estimated fewer than 5% were deficient. Examples included fields reading "Failed to Provide," "Unknown Address" or "NA NA," as well as addresses missing a street name or number.
How we know: D.D.C. ruling read directly Oct. 3, 2026. The 42,695 figure counts requests processed without the required address check; it is not the court's estimate of how many addresses ultimately proved wrong or incomplete.
“approximately 42,695 times”
Source chain
- 01Center for Taxpayer Rights v. IRS, No. 1:25-cv-00457, Doc. 74 (D.D.C. Feb. 26, 2026)primarydocket 1:25-cv-00457document (PDF)
- 02AP, Feb 26link being reconstructed