Farmers Say Federal Form Invades Privacy
April 14, 2009 Farmers are joining the call for the federal Agriculture Department to change a new federal policy they say requires them to authorize the release of personal tax information.
At issue is a form used to certify whether a farmer is eligible for federal farm programs, based on income. It states that farmers authorize federal workers “to obtain tax data from the IRS for … compliance verification purposes.”
North Dakota Farmers Union President Robert Carlson on Tuesday said the form crosses the line into an invasion of privacy. Nine Republicans on the U.S. House Agriculture Committee used the same phrase last month in asking Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reconsider the plan, saying it went against congressional intent.
The federal Farm Service Agency, which administers farm programs, says producers have nothing to worry about.
“Their filed tax returns will never physically be transferred to FSA for review,” said Jonathan Groveman, an agency spokesman in Washington.
Carlson has asked the Agriculture Department to change the form similar to the tax system, in which people are expected to honestly fill out forms and are subject to random checks.
“If you say (on the form) that you’re eligible, you should be presumed to be eligible, understanding that you are subject to a random audit” and penalties for lying, Carlson said.
The federal Agriculture Department is trying to crack down on payments to ineligible farmers. When officials last month announced the cooperative effort with the Internal Revenue Service, they cited nearly $50 million in payments to ineligible farmers between 2003 and 2006.
USDA said it would not receive actual tax data under the plan.
“What’s happening is the IRS and USDA are working on a form that will have farmer information on it, and the IRS will be able to certify the income data,” Groveman said. “We will never physically get income data from the IRS.”
Officials at the FSA office in North Dakota said details are still being worked out.
“We’re under the understanding that we’re not going to be getting anything more than a list of names … of farmers that may exceed the income limitations,” said Gwen Uecker, an FSA farm program specialist in Fargo.
Wisconsin Farmers Union President Sue Beitlich, who also is following the issue, said the wording of the form farmers must sign is overly broad. “I think farmers will have a problem with this,” she said.
Carlson said the Farmers Union agrees that farm program payments should go to family farms and not large commercial operations, but he thinks the form goes too far. In many rural areas, he and Beitlich said, FSA workers might be privy to tax information about their friends and neighbors.
“Hopefully, this information would be kept confidential, but people are human,” Beitlich said.
GET THE NEWSLETTER TODAY!
