Premium Tax Resolutions, Inc.

November 23rd, 2015

The IRS and Social Security Administration recently published new tips for individuals and business to help avoid Identity Theft, which is estimated to have cost the IRS 5.2B last year alone.  A video is available here.  If you think you have been the victim of identity theft resulting in the loss or improper payment of your tax refund, the process can be quite difficult to navigate alone.  At the minimum, you will be required to submit IRS Form 14039 - Identity Theft Affidavit before receiving any refund or other relief from the IRS.  In some instances, the IRS has initiated collections against clients for information submitted in fraudulent returns and to recover refunds that were not issued to the taxpayer.

If you have been the victim of Identity Theft, the IRS will also issue you a PIN that must be used when your tax return is submitted or the return will be presumed fraudulent and not processed.

Everyone knows that the Holiday season comes with risks as well as joy.  Each year, thieves steal billions of dollars through various schemes, including phony online stores, identity theft, or simply taking packages off your front porch.  Recently, the IRS has also reported an increase in phone scams where scammers pretend to be IRS agents and demand immediate payment.  These thieves are fairly good at contacting people who actually do owe the IRS money, so often they are able to exploit a person's fear.  Here are the typical claims made by the phone scammers:

• The IRS is about to begin criminal proceedings for unpaid taxes;
• The IRS is about to seize property (or bank assets);
• If the IRS does not receive a payment that day by money order or wire, they are going to take enforcement action;
• The scammers usually do not give an IRS badge number when they call.
  

If you receive a call from a purported IRS agent asking for immediate payment to stop collections or criminal charges from moving forward, you should NEVER send payment without first calling the IRS directly.  If the caller left a message you should NEVER call back or deliver any personal information over the phone.  If you happen to pick up the phone, here are some things to keep in mind that help verify that you are speaking with an actual IRS Agent:

1. The IRS will almost never call you directly unless you have a Revenue Officer assigned to the case.  Even then, the Revenue Officers will first either stop by or send you a letter with their contact information.  If the person calling is not the Revenue Officer you have been working with, it is almost always a scam.
2. The IRS does not typically warn people of impending criminal or enforcement actions.  If they did, people would make themselves or their money unavailable.  For that reason, any calls threatening enforcement without receiving immediate payment are probably a scam of one type or another.
   
3. Ask for their badge number.  Most times, a scammer will immediately hang up if you ask for this.  If they give you a number, write it down and then hang up the phone.
4. Never give any identifying information.  If it is the IRS, they know who you are and have your address, social security number, and a lot of other information about you already.  Just because the scammer might know those things as well does not confirm that they are with the IRS.  Scammers are getting much better at gathering identifying information, and they may know a surprising amount about you.  Do not even confirm with the caller if the information is accurate.  By this point, you should have already hung up the phone.
5. If you think there is some chance that the call was legitimate, you can call the IRS directly.  If you have a Revenue Officer, you should contact them and confirm whether the call was legitimate.  If you do not have a Revenue Officer, you can call the general collections line at (800) 829-3900.

Keeping these things in mind can help protect you from these increasingly common scams.  On the rare occasion that the call is from the IRS, your case has probably progressed to a point where you need some experienced representation.  Contact us and we can discuss your options as part of a free initial consultation.