Identity theft is a major problem in the United States and the IRS has been attempting to address the issue. “The Internal Revenue Service’s expanded use of controls this tax season to identify fraudulent refund claims before accepting them into its processing system has allowed the IRS to identify approximately 35,000 fraudulent e-filed tax returns and 741 paper tax returns as of Feb. 29, 2016, according to a new government report.” The extra funding that congress has provided the IRS this season has allowed them to implement many of these programs that enabled them to identify these fraudulent returns. The IRS also plans to assist more tax payers with more face-to-face contact at its walk-in taxpayer assistance centers.
See Michael Cohn, IRS Caught Over 30,000 Tax Returns Involving ID Theft, Accounting Today, April 21, 2016.
