Privacy Act of 1974; Notice of a Computer Matching Program

AGENCY:

Office of the Chief Information Officer, HUD.

ACTION:

Notice of a Computer Matching Program—HUD and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

SUMMARY:

In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), as amended by the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (Pub. L. 100-503), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Guidelines on the Conduct of Matching Programs (54 FR 25818; June 19, 1989), and OMB Bulletin 89-22, “Instructions on Reporting Computer Matching Programs to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Congress and the Public,” the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is issuing a public notice of its intent to conduct a computer matching program with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This notice supersedes a similar notice published in the Federal Register on June 21, 2001 (66 FR 33265). Under the terms of the agreement IRS agrees to disclose to HUD taxpayer mailing addresses as authorized by the Commissioner or her delegate pursuant to Section 6103(m)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) for use in locating individuals to collect or compromise federal claims in accordance with 31 United States Code (U.S.C.) 3711, 3717 and 3718. This program is called the Taxpayer Address Request Program (TAR). It was established by the IRS to facilitate the retrieval of taxpayer mailing addresses from the individual Master File on a volume basis. The volume of addresses and the method in which the IRS maintains the information make computer matching the most feasible method of extracting the data for disclosure to other agencies. Using the TAR computer matching program, current addresses can be obtained from the IRS within a one-week period, thereby avoiding the expenditure of substantial federal resources in the manual execution of a matching process or investigations by a large workforce to ascertain the current address of individuals against whom the agency has a claim or indebtedness.

DATES:

Effective Date: Computer matching is expected to begin on April 19, 2004 unless comments are received which will result in a contrary determination, or 40 days from the date a computer matching agreement is signed, whichever is later.

Comments Due Date: April 19, 2004.

ADDRESSES:

Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding this notice to the Rules Docket Clerk, Office of General Counsel, Room 10276, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC 20410-0500. Communications should refer to the above docket number and title. A copy of each communication submitted will be available for public inspection and copying between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays at the above address.

For Privacy Act Information and for Further Information from Recipient Agency Contact: Jeanette Smith, Departmental Privacy Act Officer, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW., Washington, DC 20410, telephone number (202) 708-2374 or FAX (202) 708-3135. (These are not toll-free numbers.)

For Further Information from Source Agency Contact: M.R. Taylor, Internal Revenue Service, Office of Governmental Liaison, CL: GLD: GL Room 16111R, 1111 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20224, telephone number (202) 622-5145 or Fax (202) 622-3041. (These are not toll-free numbers.)

Reporting: In accordance with Public Law 100-503, the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988, as amended, and Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Bulletin 89-22, “Instructions on Reporting Computer Matching Programs to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Congress and the Public;” copies of this notice and report are being provided to the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight of the House of Representatives, the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and the Office of Management and Budget.

Authority: The matching program will be conducted under the authority of Section 6103 (m)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code and 31 United States Code 3711, 3717 and 3718.

Objectives To Be Met By the Matching Program: HUD expects that this computer matching program will enable it to quickly and effectively identify and locate individual debtors, and to obtain current mailing addresses of defaulted debtors.

Records To Be Matched: HUD will utilize its system of records entitled, Accounting Records, HUD/Dept-2. HUD will submit approximately 1,500 records annually of individuals with outstanding federal debts for matching purposes. These records are extracted from the Privacy Act system of records, HUD/Dept-2, Accounting Records, maintained in the following programs and automated systems: (1) Title I—Debt Management Collection Systems; (2) Section 312—Loan Mortgage System; and (3) Departmental Claims—Delinquent Debt Control System. The IRS will extract taxpayer address information from Privacy Act System of Records: Individual Master File, Treas/IRS 24.030, maintained at the Martinsburg Computing Center, Martinsburg, WV. This file contains approximately 20 million records of taxpayers who have filed U.S. Individual Income Tax returns.

Notice Procedures: The IRS provides direct notice to taxpayers in the instructions to Form 1040, 1040A, and 1040EZ that information provided on U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns may be given to other federal agencies, as provided by law. HUD agrees to ensure that each applicant, at the time of application, receives written notice that the information provided on the application is subject to verification through computer matching with other federal agencies for the purpose of locating delinquent debtors. Direct notice consists of appropriate language printed on its application forms or a separate handout provided to the individual.

Categories of Records/Individuals Involved: The debtor records include these data elements: SSN, claim number, program code, and indication of indebtedness. Categories of records include: records of claims and defaults, repayment agreements, credit reports, financial statements, and records of foreclosures.

Period of the Match: Matching will begin at least 40 days from the date copies of the signed (by both Data Integrity Boards) computer matching agreement are sent to both Houses of Congress or at least 30 days from the date this notice is published in the Federal Register, whichever is later, providing no comments are received which will result in a contrary determination. The matching program will be in effect and continue for 18 months with an option to renew for 12 additional months unless one of the parties to the agreement advises the other in writing to terminate or modify the agreement.