Lawmakers and witnesses raise alarms over outside access to Treasury payment systems and taxpayer confidentiality

Members of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight spent substantial time questioning witnesses about reported access to the Bureau of the Fiscal Servicepayment systems and the implications for taxpayer confidentiality.

The committee's initial questions centered on who had accessed Treasury systems and what confidential tax or payment information might have been exposed. The Government Accountability Office managing director responded to direct committee questions: "We do not" know what confidential tax or sensitive information was accessed and shared, and GAO has not yet performed work to determine who accessed the data or what code changes were made, testimony said.

Former National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olsen described herself as "a confidentiality hawk" and stressed the statutory protection that Congress placed around tax returns. "Confidentiality is core to why taxpayers agree to self-assess," Olsen said, warning that improper access or disclosure would "chill" voluntary compliance.

Committee members raised additional oversight concerns: whether auditors' logs could be overridden or deleted, whether career inspector general functions had been impaired, and whether notification and redress procedures for affected taxpayers exist and are adequate. Witnesses told members that audit and oversight records exist in some systems but that access and aggregation challenges limit third-party auditors' ability to fully account for who accessed which data.

Members from both parties cited a recent court action that enjoined certain access and ordered the return or destruction of documents; committee members said the injunction and court findings underscore the need for clearer controls and statutory clarity.

Witnesses and members repeatedly invoked 26 U.S.C.