By Andy Vuong -
A federal judge has granted the Internal Revenue Service the right to seek information from First Data Corp. about certain credit-card transactions the company has processed.
The IRS wants the information as part of its crackdown on tax evaders.
Specifically, the IRS wants information about holders of American Express, Visa and MasterCard credit cards that were issued by or on behalf of certain offshore financial institutions.
The government listed more than 30 offshore jurisdictions, including Aruba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland.
The IRS said in a court filing that it believes those account holders "may fail, or may have failed, to comply with internal revenue laws."
The IRS is targeting people who held such accounts between Dec. 31, 1999, and Dec. 31, 2003.
The government is seeking the names of the account holders, their credit-card statements, their credit limit and information on when they opened their accounts.
"We haven't seen the order, but we always comply with the law," said First Data spokeswoman Staci Busby.
She declined to comment further about the order by U.S. District Judge Phillip Figa, which was made Monday.
In 2003, Greenwood Village-based First Data processed 12.2 billion payment transactions, Busby said.
Judges have granted so-called "John Doe" summons in five similar situations, the IRS said in court documents.
Souce: Denver Post
