Tax Information Awareness

Faithful reader Rick Barton passes along a Boston Globe report on the latest tools for tax collectors:

The [Revenue Department] has launched a technology offensive with the goal of pulling together stray bits of information about every Massachusetts taxpayer, searching for clues that would indicate who isn't paying the taxes they owe.

State officials dismiss the notion they are playing Big Brother, but the potential is rather Orwellian. In theory, said Revenue Department Commissioner Alan LeBovidge, the state may eventually be able to track down so much information about a resident's finances that the state, rather than the individual, could complete the individual's tax return.