Yes, that's right. Pursuant to AB604, which was passed unanimously in the 1997-1998 Session of the California State Assembly, the State Government of California can now sell your private income tax data, including salary, etc., to anyone who claims to be a creditor. Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas already have this authority. However, the government promises to make the information available only to reliable people, such as banks, landlords, ex-wives (or ex-husbands), private investigators, telemarketing firms and used car salesmen. Of course since only a verbal ‘‘promise’’ to use the information properly is required, and no written permission is necessary from the targeted taxpayer, anyone (yes, even you or I!) could probably obtain information about whomever we want.
Want to find out how much your boss or coworker’s make? That information can be yours for a paltry $5 to $10! In California, just contact your friendly local Employment Development Department (the unemployment office). Note: Implementation by the California EDD has been temporarily put on hold, but you can be sure that as soon as no one is paying attention, implementation will recommence. I don’t know which government department handles the sales in other states, but I’m sure that soon the same information will be available from the Federal Government as well. Access to personal income tax information will undoubtedly become even easier as enterprising companies begin to resell the information to the general public via the Internet. The fact that U.S. Citizens already pay a larger share of their incomes in taxes to the government than serfs paid to their kings during feudal times apparently isn’t enough to appease our government.
For complete text of AB604, see: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/97-98/bill/asm/ab_0601-0650/ab_604_bill_19980923_chaptered.html
| ‘‘The MX Missle is good for the economy. One important reason we have a Defense Department is that when we give it money, it spends it, which creates jobs, whereas if we left the money in the hands of civilians, we don’t know what they’d do with it. Probably put it in open trenches and set it on fire.’’ |
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