Powerful House chairman slams IRS for lax security with private taxpayer data

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., is slamming the IRS for lax security, including allowing departed contractors or those who failed background checks to access sensitive taxpayer data.

"It's extremely disturbing," Smith told the Just the News, No Noise TV show. "The IRS needs to do everything they can to protect taxpayer information. It's quite sensitive."

According to a report from an agency watchdog, the IRS failed to revoke access to sensitive tax systems from contractors who didn't pass background checks and didn't have protections for some of those systems to prevent unauthorized removal of taxpayer data.

"We also saw that more than 260 individuals who no longer work for the IRS still had access to all the taxpayer information," Smith said. "That is not appropriate."

The Treasury Department Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) first began warning the IRS was doing a poor job protecting taxpayer information back in 2007 when George W. Bush was still president.  

"We need to make sure that there are more significant penalties for this kind of behavior," Smith said.