From the Blog of the National Society of Accountants to your blog-mail. Thanks NSA for the alert! (EAS)
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In the past, when identity thieves stole your identity by submitting a false tax return, you would not be notified by the IRS. That is about to change, thanks to Senator Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.
Senator Ayotte wrote to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen last month urging the IRS to provide tax-related identity theft victims with copies of fraudulent returns, which the agency had previously refused to do. One reason cited for not releasing copies to victims was that often additional social security numbers are on a return, which would compromise those identities as well. On the other hand, by not providing copies of the fraudulent returns, victims did not know exactly what details of their personal information had been stolen.
In response to Senator Ayotte’s request, Commissioner Koskinen wrote, “As a result of your letter, we have decided to change our policy regarding disclosure of fraudulent identity theft returns to victims whose name and SSN the fraudulent return was filed under…We will put together a procedure that will enable victims to receive, upon request, redacted copies of fraudulent returns filed in their name and SSN.”
This update is on the heels of the IRS revealing a massive data breach in late May in which criminals accessed approximately 104,000 tax returns through the IRS’s online Get Transcript application.