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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteIRS employees and contractors may access a celebrity’s tax account only when it is needed for assigned tax-administration work—not out of curiosity. The IRS’s current rules explicitly address celebrities and politicians. A 2022 Government Accountability Office report found that 27% of a broader set of employee unauthorized-access investigations it reviewed were violations, but it did not establish a celebrity-specific count or identify celebrities whose records were accessed.
When may an IRS employee access a celebrity’s tax records?
Only for a legitimate work reason. The IRS defines celebrities broadly as people who are famous, widely known, or frequently in the media, including government officials, entertainers, and athletes. Its 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 bars curiosity searches; it does not bar an authorized employee from handling a celebrity’s account as part of an assigned tax matter. IRS Internal Revenue Manual 10.5.5 (effective April 21, 2026).
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Having system access is not itself permission to open any taxpayer’s account. Access must be necessary for official duties. The standard applies to contractors as well as IRS employees.
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What does the report say—and what does it not say?
In a 2022 report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said 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. GAO described the duty this way: “IRS employees are responsible for accessing federal tax information only when it is required to complete their official duties.” GAO, IRS Security of Taxpayer Information: Characteristics of Employee Unauthorized Access and Disclosure Cases.
Those figures concern a broad set of employee investigations, not celebrity-account searches. The 27% is the share of completed investigations in that period that were found to be violations—not the share of IRS staff who snoop, nor the share of celebrity searches that were improper. The report does not, on the evidence available here, identify a celebrity-specific incident or count.
Unauthorized access and unauthorized disclosure are related but distinct: opening tax information without a work reason is not the same act as sharing or stealing it. The GAO report covers cases involving unauthorized access and disclosure; its aggregate finding should not be read as proof that a particular celebrity’s return was viewed.
How does the IRS address suspected snooping?
The IRS calls its unauthorized-access program UNAX. Its manual distinguishes a suspected incident referred for investigation from a substantiated violation confirmed by the agency. A referral or investigation is not, by itself, a finding of wrongdoing.
- Monitoring and investigation: IRS policy describes audit logs as tools for detecting, investigating, and reconstructing unauthorized access.
- Reporting: Employees must report known potential violations immediately to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) and/or IRS management. The IRS also requires annual UNAX awareness certification.
- Possible consequences: Depending on applicable law and the facts, consequences may include removal from employment, fines, imprisonment, and possible civil action by affected taxpayers.
These policies describe safeguards and reporting obligations; they do not prove that every unauthorized access attempt is detected.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What do later access-control findings show?
A separate TIGTA evaluation reviewed access to sensitive systems and safeguards for Federal Tax Information. In IRS Publication 5456, the agency reported that in July 2023 nearly 92,000 employees and contractors were authorized to access one or more of 276 sensitive-data systems. TIGTA also found that 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 those users browsed celebrity accounts. They measure a different issue and time period from GAO’s investigation totals.
The same publication describes former contractor Charles Littlejohn’s theft and disclosure of tax returns involving a high-ranking government official and related people, as well as records of thousands of wealthy individuals. That was a distinct unauthorized-disclosure episode; it is not evidence of employees casually browsing celebrity accounts.
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