Palantir has been assisting the IRS Criminal Investigations office in probing financial crimes in the United States for much of the last decade, according to a report published by The Intercept in April 2026.
The IRS has paid Palantir $130 million since 2018 to use its data analysis software to examine financial records for investigative purposes. The figures come from public records obtained by American Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group, detailing Palantir’s IRS contract.
The software at the center of the arrangement is Palantir’s Lead and Case Analytics platform, which aggregates and analyzes data across multiple federal agencies. According to The Intercept, the tool can identify “connections from millions of records with thousands of links” between various databases and is particularly capable of mapping human relationships and communications.
While it was previously known that the IRS used Palantir’s products — and that the agency viewed the software as a way to automate and modernize audits — the full scope of the relationship had not been previously reported. It was also reported last summer that Palantir was assisting DOGE, the government efficiency initiative launched by President Trump’s executive order, on a project designed to access IRS records.
Earlier this week, American Oversight sued the Trump administration seeking public records related to multiple federal agencies’ use of Palantir tools, including the IRS. The lawsuit and the newly disclosed contract details together suggest the breadth of Palantir’s role across federal government operations may be wider than previously understood. TechCrunch reported it had reached out to Palantir for comment.
Source: TechCrunch