The unusual request could put sensitive data about millions of American taxpayers in the hands of Trump political appointees.
The Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, D.C. (Annabelle Gordon/Reuters)
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.
Kliger had not been granted IDRS access as of Sunday evening, according to a person with firsthand knowledge of his movement and access at the tax agency, as acting IRS commissioner Doug O’Donnell had yet to finalize the memorandum that would permit him to do more detailed work.
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.
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.
“IDRS users are authorized to access only those accounts required to accomplish their official duties,” according to IRS policy.
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.