What is tax identity theft and how does it happen?
We are midway through tax season - have you filed your tax return yet? Or has a criminal already filed them for you? What is tax-related identity theft? More often referred to as ‘tax identity theft’, tax-related identity theft is when an unauthorized person files a tax return with a stolen social security number in order to obtain a fraudulent refund. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been beefing up efforts to help stop tax related identity theft. The number of taxpayers who reported they were victims of identity theft dropped 32% in 2016 and 40% in 2017. The amount of refunds protected from those fraudulent returns was $6.4 billion and $6 billion respectively. How do you know if you are a victim of tax identity theft? Some signs you are a victim of tax identity theft are : You have been paid by an employer you don’t know. In order for businesses to pay employees, a social security number (SSN) is needed. If someone uses your SSN to get a job, the business will fil