The December 19 APDU Weekly reported that a draft bill released by the Senate Finance Committee has language to allow limited sharing of IRS business tax information with BEA and BLS. They are requesting comments by January 17. The relevant section of the discussion draft is below and you can read the Committee's November 20 press release here.
In this November 2011 Amstat News article, Data Synchronization: Leveraging Existing Business Data to Better Measure the Economy, the Council of Economic Advisers' Statistical Office Director Adrienne Pilot describes the inter-agency proposal to do this, emphasizing the privacy and confidentiality protections and the benefit to our economy of allowing this limited sharing. The draft language below seems quite consistent with the inter-agency proposal described in this article.
I am not aware of a House version of this provision being developed but will update this blog entry as I learn more.
If you have any comments about this draft language, please email them to me. [1/22/14, See this letter organized by COPAFS and signed by the ASA in support of the language below.]
See other ASA Science Policy blog entries. For ASA science policy updates, follow @ASA_SciPol on Twitter.
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Text of Section 71 of the Senate Finance Committee's Tax Administration Provisions discussion draft:
SEC. 71. AUTHORITY FOR LIMITED SHARING OF BUSINESS TAX INFORMATION WITH THE BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
(a) IN GENERAL .—Paragraph (1) of section 6103(j) is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘return information reflected on returns of corporations’’ in subparagraph (B) and inserting ‘‘returns, or return information reflected thereon, of corporations, sole proprietorships with receipts for the taxable year to which such returns relate in excess of $750,000, and partnerships (excluding returns of the partners),’’, and
(2) by adding at the end the following new sentence: ‘‘For purposes of subparagraph (B), information furnished with respect to a sole proprietorship shall be limited to the identity of the sole proprietorship and information relating to receipts, expenses, profits, compensation, assets, and liabilities.’’.
(b) AUTHORITY FOR INFORMATION SHARING WITH BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.—Subsection (j) of section 6103 is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
‘‘(7) DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Upon request in writing by the Secretary of Labor, within the limitations prescribed by subparagraph (B), the`Secretary shall furnish such return information with respect to—
‘‘(i) corporations,
‘‘(ii) sole proprietorships that have at least 1 employee other than the proprietor,
‘‘(iii) partnerships (excluding return information from the returns of the partners), and
‘‘(iv) tax-exempt entities, including any Federal, State, local, or Indian tribal government or any agency or instrumentality thereof,
as the Secretary may prescribe by regulation to officers and employees of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the purpose of, but only to the extent necessary in, the structuring and conducting of censuses and surveys of labor and employment, prices, compensation and working conditions, and related statistical activities as authorized by law.
‘‘(B) LIMITATION.—The information which may be furnished under subparagraph (A) shall be limited to—
‘‘(i) taxpayer identification number,
‘‘(ii) business or entity name, trade name, mailing address, and physical location address,
‘‘(iii) principal industry activity (including business description and industry code),
‘‘(iv) number of employees and total of wages, tips, and other compensation, and
‘‘(v) sales and revenues.
No information regarding returns of an individual employee shall be furnished under sub paragraph (A).
‘‘(C) DISCLOSURE TO CERTAIN STATE EMPLOYEES AND OFFICERS.—
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Subject to approval by the Secretary, the information described in clauses (i), (ii), and (iii) of subparagraph (B) may be disclosed by officers and employees of the Bureau of Labor Statistics to officers and employees of state agencies that collect, process, and analyze survey responses and data from administrative records relating to unemployment insurance.
‘‘(ii) RESTRICTION ON USE OF DISCLOSED INFORMATION.—Return information disclosed to State agencies under this paragraph may be used for the purpose of, but only to the extent necessary in, analyzing and independently verifying discrepancies between business lists issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of the Census in order to synchronize such lists. Such return information may be compared with State statistical agency records solely for the purpose of measuring the accuracy of the data maintained by such agency. If such agency data does not match the information furnished by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the State statistical agency must independently verify its own data using other sources. Only data independently obtained and verified may be made a part of the State statistical agency records.
‘‘(iii) MONITORING BY BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.—In the case of any disclosure to a State agency under clause (ii), the Bureau of Labor Statistics shall monitor compliance by such State agencies with applicable rules for safeguarding disclosed information, insuring that all relevant persons and sites comply with the requirements of subsection (p)(4).
‘‘(8) INTERAGENCY DISCLOSURE.—The Bureau of the Census, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics and their officers and employees may share among themselves the return information disclosed under paragraphs (1) and (7) of this subsection pursuant to written agreements approved by the Secretary and in accordance with the rules of subsection (p)(2)(B) and the regulations thereunder, for the purpose of synchronizing the business lists issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of the Census.’’.
(c) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—
(1) Paragraph (4) of section 6103(p) is amended—
(A) by striking ‘‘(j)(1), (2), or (5)’’ and inserting ‘‘(j)(1), (2), (5), or (7)’’,
(B) by striking ‘‘any other person described in subsection (k)(10),’’ in the matter preceding subparagraph (A) and inserting ‘‘any other person described in subsection (j)(7), (k)(10),’’,
(C) by striking ‘‘subsection (k)(10) or subsection (l)(10),’’ in subparagraph (F)(i) and inserting ‘‘subsection (j)(7), (k)(10), or (l)(10),’’,
(D) by striking ‘‘(j)(1), (2), or (5)’’ in subparagraph (F)(ii) and inserting ‘‘(j)(1), (2), (5), or (7)’’, and
(E) by striking ‘‘any other person described in subsection (k)(10) or subsection (l)(10),’’ both places it appears in the matter following subparagraph (F)(iii) and inserting ‘‘any other person described in subsection (j)(7), (k)(10), or (l)(10),’’.
(2) Paragraph (2) of section 7213(a) is amended by striking ‘‘(k)(10),’’ and inserting ‘‘(j)(7), (k)(10),’’.
(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by this section shall apply to disclosures after the date of the enactment of this Act.