Unsurprisingly identity thieves are targeting tax refunds. The best way to avoid having your refund stolen by an identity thief is to file your taxes early. Since the IRS is not accepting tax returns until January 31 this year, the thing to do is see a licensed tax preparer, such as myself, on or before January 31 and have your taxes e-filed on January 31. In this way, there is no way that an identity thief can file before you. In fact, not e-filing delays the processing of your return, and thus gives identity thieves more time to steal your refund. Since the IRS requires that all licensed tax preparers e-file returns, you should be concerned that any preparer who is not offering to e-file your return may actually be an identity thief. Such a person is not operating under proper scrutiny or otherwise complying with IRS requirements, so it is fair to worry about what else this person is doing.
“One way to prevent this from happening is to file early. Why? The IRS may be able to process your return before the identity thieves can. ‘It really can be a race to the IRS,’ said Steve Toporoff, coordinator of theIdentity Protection Program at the FTC. “They usually don’t have access to W-2 forms, so they just make up income numbers and hope their phony return gets through the process,” Toporoff explained.”
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