Palantir has been helping the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations office probe financial crimes in the United States for much of the last decade, according to a report published by The Intercept on April 24, 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 the nonprofit watchdog group American Oversight, which detail the terms of Palantir’s IRS contract.
The specific tool in use is Palantir’s Lead and Case Analytics platform, which aggregates and analyzes data across multiple federal agencies. According to The Intercept, the software 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 means to automate and modernize audits — the full extent of the relationship had not been publicly reported before. Last summer, Palantir was also reported to be 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 surfaced contract details suggest the scope of Palantir’s role in federal data analysis may be broader than previously understood.
Source: TechCrunch