Experience. Dedication. Results.

Photo of Professionals at Law Office of Williams & Associates, P.C.

IRS and Security Summit Making Progress against Tax-Related Identity Theft

On Behalf of | Apr 15, 2019 | IRS |

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its Security Summit partners recently announced the results from their last 3 years of fighting tax-related identity theft. The summit first met in 2015, and the first initiatives were enacted in 2016. Since 2015, the number of taxpayers reporting they were victims of identity theft has decreased 71 percent. The number of confirmed identity theft returns stopped by the IRS declined by 54 percent in the same period.

“The IRS and the Security Summit continue to make tremendous inroads in the battle against identity theft,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “In 2018, our partnership protected more taxpayers and more tax dollars from tax-related identity theft. At a time when many in the private sector continue to struggle with these issues, the tax community has made major progress working together to stop identity theft and refund fraud.”

The IRS and Security Summit estimate that, between 2015 and 2018, the IRS has prevented the theft of $24 billion by stopping fraudulent refunds claimed through identity theft returns. In addition, financial industry partners have recovered $1.4 billion by assisting with the recovery of fraudulent refunds.

For more information on tax-related identity theft initiatives and ways to protect personal data, click here.

Archives

FindLaw Network