Idaho bill would let public assistance fraud investigators access tax records

The Idaho House Health and Welfare Committee on Monday introduced a bill to let state government agencies share state tax information to help with public assistance fraud investigations.

The bill was brought by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, a state government agency that runs public assistance programs like SNAP, formerly known as food stamps; Medicaid; and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program.

Right now, Health and Welfare can use subpoenas to seek bank records to assemble income information for benefit fraud investigations, but that process is intrusive, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Chief Jared Larsen told the committee. And he said the agency’s subpoenas aren’t necessarily binding on financial institutions outside of Idaho, which don’t always respond.

The new bill introduced would let the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare enter into an agreement with the Idaho State Tax Commission that would let the state tax agency share people’s income tax return records and information to assist with public assistance fraud investigations.

The bill’s statement of purpose said sharing tax information “would drastically reduce the investigative time spent on a fraud case and allow for more efficient use of investigators’ time.”

None of that information shared with Health and Welfare, the bill says, would be made public “unless it is used in the course of a judicial proceeding arising under the laws of this state.”

Health and Welfare has been working on the proposal for two years, Larsen told the committee. He also said the Idaho State Tax Commission didn’t have any objections to it.

The committee introduced the bill on a unanimous voice vote with little discussion. Introducing the bill tees it up for a full committee hearing, including public testimony and a possible vote to advance it to the Idaho House floor.

The bill is expected to be publicly available shortly on the Idaho Legislature’s website.

If passed into law, the bill would take effect July 1.

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