Sen. Mike Crapo: IRS data breach – trust makes this tax system work. Here's what happens if that is lost

Voluntary compliance is a bedrock of our tax system, and is dependent on taxpayer trust that laws are equitable, equally applied, administered fairly, and administered without penalty for timely compliance.

Voluntary compliance also relies on taxpayers trusting the IRS to safeguard vigilantly the immensely personal information that tax laws require payers to disclose, including family status, business relationships, debts, medical or disability status, and a slew of other personal data.    Privacy breaches are harmful and this violation does immense damage to taxpayer trust in the IRS. Americans deserve and expect data privacy. As a baseline, the law treats personal tax data as strictly confidential, and requires active and assiduous confidentiality protections at the IRS and from any of its agents or partners with access to the data.