No Privacy for 1040

One of America's abiding myths has been that a citizen's individual income tax return is a confidential matter. Even Democratic National Chairman Lawrence O'Brien thought so, and he should know better. Two weeks ago, O'Brien, who was John Kennedy's congressional liaison, and Mortimer M. Caplin, J.F.K.'s Commissioner of Internal Revenue, piously deplored White House Investigator Clark Mollenhoff's seemingly unlimited access to individual tax returns. Illegal, huffed O'Brien. Unless President Nixon withdraws Mollenhoff's snooping privileges, they warned, "We are prepared to initiate legal action."

It would have to be a legal broadside, for the fact is that hundreds of state and federal officials have access to individual income tax returns, and the precedent goes back to 1910. It can be argued, of course, that many officials have good reason to seek such specific information for tax and criminal prosecutions. What angered O'Brien and Caplin was the notion that Mollenhoff, Nixon's political snooper, should enjoy the privilege in pursuit of partisan ends. Nixon and the IRS had the last word, however. Last week, the IRS produced a 1961 memo extending similar privileges to Carmine Bellino, the man who served J.F.K. in the same capacity as Mollenhoff serves Nixon. The authorization signature read Mortimer M. Caplin.

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