The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) recently released a report finding that the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS’) Criminal Investigation team (CI) should increase its involvement in the enforcement against identity theft issues. From FY 2013 to FYY 2017, there was a 75-percent decrease in the number of CI-initiated identity theft investigations; overall, there was a 43-percent decline in these types of investigations over the same period. In addition, many taxpayer requests for identity theft investigations were not entered into the CI referral system process.
TIGTA has recommended that the CI Chief create processes for taxpayers and non-CI IRS employees to submit identity theft case referrals for CI to review. For more details, click here.
