IRS Security Breach: What the IRS DOESN'T Want you to know about identity theft

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There has been a major boo-boo in the IRS General Accountability Office resulting in over $5 billion in bogus tax refunds off the backs of identity theft victims taking months to resolve and resulting in a financial nightmare for unsuspecting tax payers.

According to the General Accountability Office, the IRS paid out $5.8 BILLION in bogus refunds for 2013, which may be even higher because of the difficulty in knowing how much income tax fraud remains undetected.

Most Common Tax Identity Theft:

– The common way tax identity theft occurs is when the thief files with the victim’s social security number along with a counterfeit W-2 saying they’re due a large refund. The current law requires employers to file W-2s with the federal government by February 29th or as late as March 31st if the employer files W-2s electronically. The catch? The law doesn’t require W-2s to be filed with the IRS by those dates but are required to be filed with the Social Security Administration. Why is that a problem? Because the SSA does not send these W-2s to the IRS until July. This delay provides a huge window of time for a thief to have already received the bogus refunds before a discrepancy can be detected.

– Bogus emails. These tactics have been alive and well since 2013 and still plague unsuspecting tax payers. If you receive a bogus email, do NOT open the attachment or click any links. Simply forward the email to [email protected]. Then delete it.

– Phone Calls. If someone claims to be from the IRS:

  • Ask for a call back number and an employee badge number.
  • Call the IRS at 800-829-1040 if you think you owe taxes.
  • If you have no reason to believe you owe taxes, call the Treasury Inspector to report the incident at 800-366-4484
  • Visit HERE for more information:

Why file early?

– If you are a victim of tax fraud, it takes an average of 278 days to resolve your claim.

– Filing early give thieves less time to steal your information.

– Hide your social security card and DO NOT carry it in your wallet or purse.

– Store files safely electronically. We can help you with that HERE.

– Shred all unnecessary documents. Talk to SecurShred for secure shredding of your documents HERE