If the IRS were to garnish your accounts, they can get all the account numbers without your assistance. Giving them the information might save them a day or two in the processing.<p>I am not a fan of giving government agencies sensitive data that they do not already have readily available for historical reasons. The federal government historically have not done well in <i>technical</i> security audits. This is not specific to the IRS and I am not picking on them specifically. More generally this is about technical security audits and not the checkbox governance audits. They are getting better in governance and compliance audits.<p>All of that said, I am a firm believer in "People can't mismanage, lose or otherwise <i>accidentally</i> leak data they do not have in the first place." I barely trust my bank to manage my bank accounts. Having worked for a bank, I know how antiquated their back-end systems are.