Identity theft

The number of victims of employment-related identity theft is far larger than previously estimated and the Internal Revenue Service’s processes aren’t able to keep up, according to a new report.

The Internal Revenue Service is making strides in assisting victims of tax-related identity theft more promptly and making fewer errors on cases, thanks to a more centralized approach, according to a new government report.

Every accountant and tax pro should make these steps part of their cyber-security strategy.

The omnibus appropriations bill passed by Congress includes a number of priorities and directives for the Internal Revenue Service.

A grand jury in Georgia has indicted an Internal Revenue Service employee for stealing taxpayers’ identities and filing for tax refunds with their names.

The Internal Revenue Service’s new procedure for authenticating withholding information did not go completely smoothly this past tax season, although it did hold promise for combating identity theft and tax fraud.

As Tax Day looms near, cybercriminals will be making a strong push down the final stretch.

A data breach in the Internal Revenue Service’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, tool, which the IRS was forced to shut down last month, may have affected up to 100,000 taxpayers.

The home stretch of tax season will see fraudsters’ biggest push – but cybersecurity expert Kevin O’Brien says that taxpayers and tax professionals accountants will still need to protect themselves after that.

The Internal Revenue Service saw a sharp drop-off in tax returns in the first half of filing season, according to a new report.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testified at a Senate hearing Thursday about tax season, a day after a group of House Republicans wrote to President Trump asking him to fire Koskinen.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office questions the usefulness of services such as identity monitoring, credit monitoring and identity theft insurance, particularly when it comes to safeguarding against tax refund fraud.

The Internal Revenue Service has seen a proliferation in the past 24 hours of a phishing email seeking to steal tax practitioners’ usernames and passwords for the IRS's online services.

The Internal Revenue Service failed to deactivate its Identity Protection Personal Identification Number program after a data breach in May 2015 for nearly a year, despite repeated recommendations from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, according to a new report.

The Internal Revenue Service is continuing to face challenges with identity theft and taxpayer service this tax season, although there have been some improvements since last year.

The Internal Revenue Service is making progress on its efforts to combat stolen identity refund fraud, but the accuracy of its measurements of the identity theft problem needs to be better, according to a new government report.

A pair of new government reports highlighted some of the hurdles the Internal Revenue Service needed to overcome last filing season as it struggles to help taxpayers and identity theft victims despite constrained resources.

The Better Business Bureau Northwest is sounding the alarm about a new email phishing scam targeting users of Intuit’s QuickBooks accounting software.

Accountants beware: Fraudsters are customizing phishing attacks with fake QuickBooks invoices and TurboTax notifications, warns Todd O’Boyle, the co-founder and chief technology officer of malware detection provider Percipient Networks.

Tax practitioners may spot a new 16-digit code on clients' W-2s this year, as part of an effort to fight tax-related ID theft.