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• Security Summit Identity Theft Tips Overview – English

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service has created a special new page on IRS.gov to help taxpayers determine if a person visiting their home or place of business claiming to be from the IRS is legitimate or an imposter.

With continuing phone scams and in-person scams taking place across the country, the IRS reminds taxpayers that IRS employees do make official, sometimes unannounced, visits to taxpayers as part of their routine casework. Taxpayers should keep in mind the reasons these visits occur and understand how to verify if it is the IRS knocking at their door.

Visits typically fall into three categories:

IRS revenue officers will sometimes make unannounced visits to a taxpayer’s home or place of business to discuss taxes owed or tax returns due. Revenue officers are IRS civil enforcement employees whose role involves education, investigation, and when necessary, appropriate enforcement.

IRS revenue agents will sometimes visit a taxpayer who is being audited. That taxpayer would have first been notified by mail about the audit and set an agreed-upon appointment time with the revenue agent. Also, after mailing an initial appointment letter to a taxpayer, an auditor may call to confirm and discuss items pertaining to the scheduled audit appointment.

IRS criminal investigators may visit a taxpayer’s home or place of business unannounced while conducting an investigation. However, these are federal law enforcement agents, and they will not demand any sort of payment. Criminal investigators also carry law enforcement credentials, including a badge.

For more information, visit “How to know it’s really the IRS calling or knocking on your door” on IRS.gov.

The IRS reminds people who owe taxes – or think they do – to stay alert to scams that use the IRS as a lure. Tax scams can happen any time of year, not just at tax time. For more information, visit “Tax Scams and Consumer Alerts” on IRS.gov.

Taxpayers have a set of fundamental rights they should be aware of when dealing with the IRS. These are your Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Explore these rights and the agency’s obligations to protect them on IRS.gov.

The fax number for Form 8655, Reporting Agent Authorization, has been changed to 855-214-7523. Forms recently sent to the previous number, 801-620-4142, have been received. But this number will soon be deactivated.

Remember: When faxing Forms 8655, send no more than 25 forms in a single transmission. Also, consider sending faxes directly from your computer rather than a fax machine – the generally improved legibility makes the forms easier to process.

Do you need more time to file a client’s return? This new YouTube video explains how to get an extension.

Also, if you work with international tax issues, another YouTube video explains how to determine the form 1099 foreign tax withholding that is eligible for the Foreign Tax Credit.

To help meet the high demand to its toll-free call center that typically comes as the tax deadline nears, the Internal Revenue Service is extending its customer service hours on Saturday, April 15.

The Practitioner Priority Service, 866-860-4259, will be open from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. local time.

The IRS reminds taxpayers that unclaimed federal income tax refunds totaling more than $1 billion may be waiting for an estimated 1 million taxpayers who did not file a 2013 federal income tax return. But time is running out. To claim this money, taxpayers must file a 2013 federal tax return by April 18.

The Internal Revenue Service is sending letters to a relatively small group of taxpayers whose overdue federal tax accounts are being assigned to one of four private-sector collection agencies.

The new program, enacted by Congress, enables designated contractors to collect, on the government’s behalf, unpaid tax debts. Usually these are unpaid individual tax obligations that are several years old and not currently being pursued by IRS collection employees.

NEW - 3/22/2017 Phishing Alert 

The Internal Revenue Service has received reports at phishing@irs.gov of an email scam that claims to be an update from a legitimate state CPA professional organization. Instead, it is a scam that seeks to steal password information.

The phishing email uses the name of a legitimate tax preparer who may also have been victimized. The email contains a PDF attachment that claims to be a “Secured File.” The attachment contains a hyperlink to view the file that the recipient is directed to open. The link directs the recipient to a phishing site that asks for the recipients email address and password.

If you receive an email similar to what has been described above, DO NOT click the links in the email. Delete the email immediately.

Keep this security tip in mind - If you receive an email with a link in it from someone that you either don't know or aren't expecting, never click on that link until you've contacted the sender and made sure it is safe. 

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service, state tax agencies and the tax industry today warned both tax professionals and taxpayers of last-minute phishing email scams, especially those requesting last-minute deposit changes for refunds or account updates.

As the 2017 tax filing season winds down to the April 18 deadline, tax-related scams of various sorts are at their peak. The IRS urged both tax professionals and taxpayers to be on guard against suspicious activity.

The IRS, state tax agencies and the tax industry, acting as the Security Summit, enacted many safeguards against identity theft for 2017, but cybercriminals are ever evolving and make use of sophisticated scams to trick people into divulging sensitive data.

For example, one new scam poses as taxpayers asking their tax preparer to make a last-minute change to their refund destination, often to a prepaid debit card. The IRS urges tax preparers to verbally reconfirm information with the client should they receive last-minute email request to change an address or direct deposit account for refunds.

The IRS also suggests that tax professionals change and strengthen their own email passwords to better protect their email accounts used to exchange sensitive data with clients.

This is also the time of year when taxpayers may see scam emails from their tax software provider or others asking them to update online accounts. Taxpayers should learn to recognize phishing emails, calls or texts that pose as familiar organizations such as banks, credit card companies, tax software providers or even the IRS. These ruses generally urge taxpayers to give up sensitive data such as passwords, Social Security numbers and bank account or credit card numbers.

Taxpayers who receive suspicious emails purporting to be from a tax software provider or from the IRS should forward them to phishing@irs.gov. Remember: never open an attachment or link from an unknown or suspicious source. It may infect your computer with malware or steal information. Also, the IRS does not send unsolicited emails or request sensitive data via email.

The Security Summit maintains a public awareness campaign for taxpayers – Taxes. Security. Together. – and an awareness campaign for tax professionals – Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself – as part of its effort to combat identity theft.

The IRS has granted many businesses directly affected by this week’s severe winter storm additional time to request a six-month extension to file their 2016 federal income tax returns.  In an effort to provide relief to tax professionals and business taxpayers in portions of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic who were unable to file their tax return by yesterday's due date (March 15, 2017), the IRS will allow those affected to request an automatic extension by filing Form 7004, on or before March 20, 2017.  Form 7004 provides a six-month extension for returns filed by partnerships (Forms 1065 and 1065B) and S corporations (Forms 1120S).

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service, state tax agencies and the tax industry today warned tax professionals to be alert to a new phishing email scam impersonating software providers.

The scam email comes with the subject line, “Access Locked.” It tells recipients that access to their tax prep software accounts has been “suspended due to errors in your security details.” The scam email asks the tax professional to address the issue by using an “unlock” link provided in the email.

However, the link will take the tax professional to a fake web page, where they are asked to enter their user name and password. Instead of unlocking accounts, the tax professionals actually are inadvertently providing their information to cybercriminals who use the stolen credentials to access the preparers’ accounts and to steal client information.

The Security Summit partners, which includes the IRS, state tax agencies and the nation’s tax community, remind tax professionals and taxpayers to never open a link or an attachment from a suspicious email. These scams can increase during the tax season.

Tax professionals can review additional tips to protect clients and themselves at the Security Summit’s awareness campaign, Protect Your Clients, Protect Yourself, on IRS.gov.

For tax professionals who receive emails purportedly from their tax software providers suggesting their accounts have been suspended, they should send those scam emails to their tax software provider.  For Windows users, please this process to help the investigation of these scam emails:

1. Use “Save As” to save the scam. Under “save as type” in the drop down menu, select “plain text” and save to your desk top. Do not click on any links.
2. Open a new email and attach this saved email as a file
3. Send your new email containing the attachment your tax software provider, as well as copy Phishing@IRS.gov.