Identity theft

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.

The Internal Revenue Service, along with the state tax authorities and tax industry companies that are part of its Security Summit, issued a warning Wednesday to tax professionals to beware of a new two-stage scheme from cybercriminals who are posing as clients soliciting services.

The Internal Revenue Service and its partners in the tax preparation industry are improving their security measures ahead of the January 23 start of tax season.

The owner of a small tax practice shows how everyone can make a difference in the fight against this scourge.