Identity theft

Tax preparers share the advice they're giving taxpayers to protect themselves.

Crooks have already started targeting tax professionals this year.

Declining manpower continues to sap the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to pursue criminal cases, as the number of new investigations dropped by 11 percent over the past year and recommendations for prosecution fell by 18 percent.

The Internal Revenue Service issued a warning Wednesday to taxpayers and tax professionals about a new email scam targeting Hotmail users in which the thieves try to steal personal and financial information.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office suggests the Internal Revenue Service should increase its efforts to collaborate with the tax preparation industry and state tax authorities in the battle against identity theft and tax fraud.

The Internal Revenue Service isn’t doing enough to ensure that Electronic Filing Identification Numbers are assigned to qualified applicants or deactivated when needed, according to a new report.

Outgoing Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen foresees problems with tax reform if major provisions apply to the current tax year and predicted the agency would need more funding from Congress to implement the legislation if it passes.

The Internal Revenue Service, working in partnership with state tax authorities and the tax preparation industry as part of their Security Summit initiative, reported significant progress Tuesday in the battle against tax-related identity theft, with new steps planned for next tax season.

The Internal Revenue Service has suspended its $7.25 million contract with Equifax after the company admitted to finding a malware link on its website on the heels of a data breach that exposed the personal information of approximately 146 million people in the U.S.

The Internal Revenue Service issued a new warning Tuesday to users of its online e-Services cautioning them to beware of a new phishing scam that attempts to trick tax professionals into “signing” a new e-Services user agreement.

The Internal Revenue Service has proposed regulations allowing truncated Taxpayer Identification Numbers on the Form W-2 to help protect people’s Social Security Numbers from identity theft.

The IRS’s ‘Don’t Take the Bait’ campaign shares tactics for protecting client data and practitioner systems.

The IRS is warning about possible fake charity scams emerging due to Hurricane Harvey.

Hilderbrand & Clark, a CPA firm based in San Ramon, Calif., disclosed it detected unauthorized access to its computer systems from abroad while filing tax returns.

‘Refund locks’ would make taxpayer information useless to identity thieves.

The Internal Revenue Service held a meeting of its Security Summit partners Tuesday in Dallas and reported on progress in battling identity theft tied to tax refund fraud, along with some setbacks.

More than 24,000 fraudulent tax returns were filed in 2015 using a prisoner’s Social Security Number, claiming refunds totaling over $1.3 billion, according to a new report.

An old banking procedure could add another layer of security to IRS return processing.

The Internal Revenue Service and its tax industry partners warned tax professionals Tuesday that takeovers of tax professionals’ accounts by cybercriminals are on the rise.

ID theft keeps on rolling; will Trump prune the IRC?; the accountant of 2022; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.