DOGE’s plan for the hackathon involves assembling “dozens” of IRS engineers in DC to work on the API, according to Wired. Among the third-party providers reportedly considered for involvement is Palantir, a company renowned for its extensive data collection and government surveillance and analysis work. DOGE aims to complete the API project in 30 days, a timeframe one IRS employee told Wired is “not technically possible” and would “cripple” the IRS.

Wired notes that the individuals leading the DOGE project are 25-year-old Gavin Kliger and health-tech CEO Sam Corcos. On March 1st, The Washington Post reported that Corcos had encouraged the agency to remove restrictions on Kliger’s system access and proposed an agreement for sharing IRS data across the government.

A March 14th letter to the IRS from Senator Ron Wyden and others suggests the agency didn’t relent, as it praises their “rightful rejection” of DOGE’s requests. It goes on to cite another later Post story suggesting that Trump administration officials want to use IRS data “to power their immigration crackdown and government efficiency campaign.”

One of the sources Wired spoke with said that “schematizing” and understanding the IRS data DOGE is after “would take years” and that “these people have no experience, not only in government, but in the IRS or with taxes or anything else.”