Social Networking Sites and the IRS

Last updated on April 5, 2022

Most taxpayers on popular social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, share their activities, thoughts, and information with their friends. Sometimes, taxpayers share sensitive tax information, including their refund amount, or the particulars of their debt on social networking sites. If their privacy settings are set to public and a taxpayer owes the IRS, it is not wise to post about tax debt on a social networking site because the IRS is known to search the profiles of defaulters.

There are various agencies, including businesses that use social networking sites to access the information of the site’s users. Even if a post is restricted to only friends, personal information and financial information should never be shared on any social platforms. In the virtual world, any information shared can be used by others for any purpose.

The IRS does not scan taxpayers’ Facebook or Twitter profiles, but if they spot tax fraud or tax evasion, they might look at a taxpayer’s social networking profile to gather more information.

Taxpayers who do not owe back taxes may not have to fear the IRS but sharing tax information, credit card numbers, passwords, IRS PINs, and other personal information on social networking sites, even through personal messages, can lead to identity theft.  Taxpayers must only use reliable sources for getting information. Scammers can hack social networking accounts to extract sensitive information to be used for tax crimes. Therefore, it is best to keep information private, and off social media sites.