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IRS employees and contractors may open a celebrity’s tax account only when it is needed for assigned tax-administration work—not out of curiosity. The IRS’s current rule explicitly addresses celebrities and politicians. Available oversight figures cover employee access cases generally, however; they do not establish that particular celebrities’ records were browsed or provide a celebrity-specific count.
When can an IRS employee access a celebrity’s tax records?
Access must be tied to official duties. The Internal Revenue Manual says employees and contractors “have no legitimate tax-related reason to access the account of a celebrity or politician unless they receive the matter through official channels or in the normal course of business.” The rule covers people who are famous, widely known, or frequently in the media, including government officials, entertainers, and athletes. IRS Internal Revenue Manual 10.5.5, effective April 21, 2026, applies the restriction to both employees and contractors.
Having system permission is not, by itself, a work reason to open a record. A celebrity’s account can still be accessed when it is part of an assigned, official matter; the rule prohibits curiosity browsing, not legitimate tax administration.
What does the reported oversight evidence show?
IRS employee investigations, fiscal years 2012–2021
The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that the IRS completed 1,694 investigations into employees’ willful unauthorized access of tax data during fiscal years 2012 through 2021. Twenty-seven percent of those investigations were found to involve violations. Those figures describe investigated employee-access cases across the agency; they are not the percentage of IRS employees who snoop and do not identify celebrity-specific searches. The GAO report also addresses unauthorized disclosure cases, which are distinct from access alone. GAO, IRS Security of Taxpayer Information: Characteristics of Employee Unauthorized Access and Disclosure Cases (2022).
Sensitive-system access, July 2023
A separate TIGTA evaluation of safeguards for Federal Tax Information found that nearly 92,000 employees and contractors were authorized to access one or more of 276 sensitive-data systems in July 2023. It also found 279 users retained sensitive-system access after leaving the agency, even though their network access had been removed. These are dated access-control findings, not evidence that those users opened celebrity accounts. The IRS summarized the findings in Publication 5456; TIGTA’s evaluation is available here.
Why the numbers cannot be combined
The GAO figures count completed investigations and findings over fiscal years 2012–2021. The TIGTA figures describe system authorization and retained access in a July 2023 snapshot. They cover different periods, populations, and measures, so neither can be used to calculate a rate of celebrity-record browsing.
How does the IRS address unauthorized access?
The IRS calls its unauthorized-access program UNAX. Under Internal Revenue Manual 10.5.5, a suspected incident referred for investigation is not automatically a substantiated violation: substantiation means the IRS has confirmed a violation. Potential consequences include removal from employment, fines, imprisonment, and possible civil action by affected taxpayers, depending on applicable law and the facts of a case.
The IRS requires annual UNAX awareness certification and says known potential violations must be reported immediately to TIGTA and/or IRS management. Audit logs can help detect, investigate, and reconstruct access. These are policy and control measures; their existence does not establish that every incident will be detected.
Unauthorized access is not the same as disclosure
Opening a taxpayer record without a work reason is unauthorized access. Disclosing tax information improperly is a separate kind of misconduct, though cases can involve both. IRS Publication 5456 describes former contractor Charles Littlejohn’s theft and disclosure of tax returns involving a high-ranking government official and related people, as well as thousands of wealthy individuals. That disclosure episode does not show that employees casually browsed celebrity accounts.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What can be concluded about celebrity records?
The IRS expressly prohibits employees and contractors from accessing celebrity or politician accounts without an official work reason, and GAO has reported aggregate investigation outcomes for unauthorized employee access. The cited oversight records do not establish that IRS employees looked up specific celebrities’ tax returns, how often celebrity accounts were accessed, or what discipline followed any celebrity-specific incident.
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