The IRS Broke the Law 42,695 Times

42,695 Violations. One Agency. Eight Months.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly didn't mince words. In her February 26 ruling, she wrote that "the IRS violated the [Internal Revenue Code] approximately 42,695 times by disclosing last known taxpayer addresses to ICE."^[1]

The law is specific: before the IRS can hand over a taxpayer's address, the requesting agency must provide the name and address of the person they're looking for. That's the whole point of Section 6103: to ensure the government can only access tax records for people it has already specifically identified.^[2]

ICE didn't bother. In thousands of cases, the agency's address field contained entries like:

• "Failed to Provide"
• "Unknown Address"
• "NA NA"
• Missing street names or numbers
• Jails and detention facilities without building locations

Under the government's verification process, Kollar-Kotelly noted, ICE could have submitted "Don't Care 12345" or "00000" and still received taxpayer home addresses in return.^[1]

90% of the Data Dump Was Illegal

Let's do the math. In August 2025, ICE submitted 1.28 million names to the IRS. The IRS responded the next day with data on approximately 47,300 people.^[3]

Of those 47,300 records, 42,695 were shared without the IRS verifying that ICE had provided a valid address. That's 90.3% of the entire data transfer.^[1]

The IRS didn't accidentally share a few extra records. It systematically ignored the verification requirement for nearly every single response. The agency built a pipeline that skipped the legal safeguard entirely.

Section 6103: The Law They Gutted

Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code exists because the government learned what happens when tax data gets weaponized. Nixon used IRS files to target political enemies. The post-Watergate Congress wrote Section 6103 to make sure it never happened again.^[4]

The law is one of the strictest confidentiality protections in federal statute. Violating it is a federal crime: up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine per offense. The IRS isn't supposed to share taxpayer information with anyone, including other federal agencies, except through narrow, specific exceptions.^[4]

The address-verification requirement is the core safeguard. If a law enforcement agency wants a taxpayer's address, it must already have an address for that person. The IRS confirms the match and provides the current address only if the submitted address is valid. That prevents bulk fishing expeditions.^[2]

What the IRS-DHS agreement did was convert that narrow exception into a mass surveillance pipeline. And when ICE submitted garbage data in the address field, the IRS processed it anyway.

"This Confirms What We've Been Saying All Along"

Nina Olson, founder of the Center for Taxpayer Rights and former National Taxpayer Advocate, didn't hold back. "This confirms what we've been saying all along: that the IRS has an unlawful policy that violates the Internal Revenue Code's protections."^[1]

She added that she knows of "no precedent" for this many simultaneous violations of taxpayer confidentiality protections. 42,695 isn't a rounding error. It's a pattern.^[1]

The IRS and Treasury Department declined to comment. Both agencies are defending the agreement in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that Kollar-Kotelly's November 2025 blocking order should be overturned.^[5]

Two Courts Blocked It. The Government Keeps Pushing.

This isn't the first ruling against the IRS-ICE data-sharing agreement. It's the latest in a series:

• November 2025: Judge Kollar-Kotelly blocked the IRS from sharing taxpayer addresses with ICE
• February 5, 2026: Judge Indira Talwani in Massachusetts blocked the entire program, ordering ICE to stop using any data obtained through the agreement
• February 26, 2026: Kollar-Kotelly quantified the violations: 42,695 illegal disclosures

The government is appealing both rulings. The D.C. Circuit is currently reviewing Kollar-Kotelly's November blocking order. If the appellate court sides with the government, the data-sharing pipeline could resume, despite the judge counting tens of thousands of federal crimes.^[5]

How We Got Here

What This Means for You

Two federal courts have blocked this program. The data ICE received shouldn't be used for enforcement, but there's no way to know if it already was during the months before the injunctions.

The chilling effect is real. Organizations that help immigrants file taxes told the courts they "cannot encourage the filing of tax returns that may result in ICE arresting" household members. Filing taxes shouldn't mean giving ICE your home address. But until the appeals are resolved, that fear isn't going away.^[3]

References

1. Missouri Lawyers Media: Judge: IRS broke law 'approximately 42,695 times' in giving DHS data (February 26, 2026)
2. U.S. News: The IRS broke the law by disclosing confidential information to ICE 42,695 times, judge says (February 26, 2026)
3. PBS NewsHour: Data of thousands of taxpayers wrongly shared with DHS, court filing says (February 2026)
4. WSLS: The IRS broke the law by disclosing confidential information to ICE 42,695 times, judge says (February 26, 2026)
5. Tax Notes: IRS Erroneously Shared Taxpayer Info With ICE (February 2026)

Related Coverage

• The IRS Handed ICE Your Neighbors' Tax Data. A Judge Just Shut It Down.. The full story of the agreement, the "accident," and the first court orders
• Federal Courts Split on IRS-ICE Data Sharing. D.C. Circuit vs. Massachusetts: the legal showdown headed to the Supreme Court
• DOJ Admits ICE Violated 56 Court Orders. The pattern of lawlessness in immigration enforcement
• DOGE Copied 300 Million Social Security Records to an Unsecured Server. The SSA data scandal and voter roll agreement
• DOGE Is Building a Master Database of Every American. Cross-agency data merging and what it means
• The Data Broker Loophole. How the government buys data it would otherwise need a warrant for