Justices Mull Need to Limit IRS Power to Demand Bank Records (1)

US Supreme Court justices Wednesday acknowledged a broad statute backs the IRS’s power to seek bank account holders’ records without telling them, but expressed the need for some limit to prevent abuse.

The case being argued, Polselli v. IRS, pits account holder privacy against Internal Revenue Service efforts to collect on taxes that have already been assessed. Account holders in the case are seeking a ruling that the IRS has to give notice unless the taxpayer who owes the liabilities has a legal interest in the targeted accounts; the IRS opposes that restriction.

“This is quite a broad statute,” ...