bloomberg: AOL, Airline Customer Records Being Sought by IRS
The US Internal Revenue Service has issued subpoenas requesting customer records from a long list of online retailers and service providers, as part of a fishing expedition for information about offshore credit card holders. AOL and EBay have said they will cooperate fully with the investigation.
The tax agency is seeking transaction records from airlines, hotels, rental car companies, retailers, Internet services, and shippers, including Delta Airlines Inc., Ramada Inc., Cendant Corp.’s Avis Rent a Car Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp., the Gap, Inc., DHL Worldwide Express, and AT&T Corp. The companies aren’t accused of any wrongdoing, the IRS said.[...]
Today’s action marks the first attempt by the IRS to find out who is purchasing goods or services with credit cards linked to offshore accounts that may be used to evade U.S. taxes. The tax collector previously has forced credit card issuers Visa International Inc., MasterCard Inc., and American Express Co. to turn over information on cardholders in Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.
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Andrew Quinlan, president of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a Washington lobby group that favors tax competition between nations, called the IRS action “a reprehensible assault on the Fourth Amendment.” The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.
Quinlan said there’s no law against having offshore credit and debit cards. “They think you may be guilty so they want to go after you,” he said.