For much of the last decade, Palantir has supported the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations office in examining various financial crimes in the U.S., according to The Intercept.
Since 2018, the IRS has compensated the firm $130 million to utilize its data analysis software for scrutinizing financial records for investigative reasons, based on public records detailing Palantir’s IRS contract acquired by the nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight.
The IRS’s use of Palantir’s products was previously known, with the agency viewing the software as a means to automate and modernize audits. Last summer, reports also indicated Palantir’s assistance in the DOGE, a “government efficiency” initiative from President Trump’s executive order with a project aimed at accessing IRS records. However, the full extent of the agency’s use of the company’s tools had not been disclosed until now.
Palantir’s Lead and Case Analytics platform is utilized to consolidate and scrutinize data across various federal agencies. Capable of discovering “connections from millions of records with thousands of links” among different databases, the tool excels at mapping human relationships and communications.
Earlier this week, the American Oversight Project initiated a lawsuit against the Trump administration for public records concerning numerous federal agencies’ application of Palantir tools, including the IRS. TechCrunch has contacted Palantir for additional information and will update the article upon the company’s response.