A Taxing Problem: ID Theft and the IRS
The words “April 15th” cause groans all over the United States each year. But for one citizen, Tax Day last year was his heads-up that someone had been tampering with his identity.
Aaron Marks of Boston, MA told MSNBC that when he attempted to electronically file his taxes last year, the Internal Revenue Service informed him that he could not–because someone else had already filed in his name.
Marks was told on the phone to submit his tax forms anyway, but has told reporters that a year later, he still hasn’t received his refund. He says he’s owed $2000 from the 2007 tax year.
Marks’ Problem Wasn’t Unique
MSNBC reporters commented in their Red Tape Chronicles that the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony at about the same time regarding a number of similar issues.
The reason for fraudulent IRS filing, testifiers said, is that the criminal receives the refund checks owed to the innocent tax payers whose identity he or she has stolen.
This obviously causes holdups in rectifying each individual situation and in the meantime, leaves citizens victimized twice: once by identity theft, and the second time by not receiving the refund.
According to Aaron Marks, he has received nothing but the runaround while the IRS tries to unravel this and numerous other similar scenarios. Marks has told reporters that he was advised by the IRS to call the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), who then told him he would need to file a police report.
In the meantime, Marks hasn’t received his 2007 refund or his 2008 stimulus check. Most frustrating of all, while Marks is inundated with telephone calls to make and paperwork to follow up on, it’s highly likely that a criminal somewhere has received, and possibly long ago spent, Marks’ hard-earned refund money.
IRS Struggles to Handle Complaints
As victims like Marks work to rectify an aggravating and unfair situation, the IRS has launched the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit in an effort to give each victim of false IRS filing more and faster attention.
The unit can be reached via the IRS’ Identity Theft Hotline, 800-908-4490. Phones are answered 8AM-8PM local time (Alaska and Hawaii operate on Pacific Time hours).
And there’s a website with instructions on how to proceed should one suspect identity fraud.
Prevention May Be Less Painful Than the Cure
The drawback to these efforts, of course, is that for the person utilizing such services, ID theft has already occurred.
A few ways to help keep yourself safe during tax time include the following:
- Don’t use a temporary tax preparer. They’re cheap and they often make promises on fast tax preparation for last-minute filers, but experts say a slap-dash executed and filed form is more likely to be waylaid on route (electronically or in the mail) by a criminal just waiting for such an opportunity.
- Beware of email or a phone call “from the IRS”. It may not be. Identity thieves are often masters of the art of deception and may use a variety of tactics–including official-sounding callers with “urgent” messages–to nab your information just prior to tax time. An official document will come in the mail, and it will be on official IRS letterhead and stationery and will be verifiable with a phone call.
- Be particularly careful of throwing out receipts and other old, outdated paperwork during tax time. The early months of the year culminating on April 15th are prime trash-diving time for IRS defrauders. If you must throw away old paperwork (remember to save all tax forms for at least seven years in the event of a possible audit), shred the papers first. Make sure you use a quality shredder that will cut the pieces too finely to be pieced back together again.
