The government has admitted to an 'unacceptable lapse' after accidentally revealing thousands of email addresses.

The income tax division had emailed people to let them know it now has a twitter account.

But, after exposing all the email addresses, one of its first tweets was an apology: 'Income Tax Division apologises for this unacceptable lapse, but can confirm no sensitive data was circulated.'

An internal investigation has been launched.

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