A Dozen Tax Scams to Avoid

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released 12 scams that commonly target taxpayers during tax season and throughout the year.

The list includes: phishing, phone scams, identity theft, return preparer fraud, inflated refund claims, falsifying income to claim credits, falsely padding deductions on returns, fake charities, excessive claims for business credits, offshore tax avoidance, frivolous tax arguments and abusive tax shelters.

Among the most prevalent are phishing, phone scams and identity theft. Phishing can be done by sending fake emails or links to fraudulent websites that are looking to take your personal information for illegal use. The IRS will not contact you with any emails regarding your taxes, therefore any claim to be the IRS over email is a scam.

Phone scams are threatening phone calls in which people pretend to be the IRS, demanding money from taxpayers. These can trick people into believing they could be arrested, deported or have their license revoked for not answering to the scammer’s demands.

Identity theft can happen anytime, but for taxpayers this means that someone can use your Social Security number to file a return in your name. The IRS is able to catch these incidents more easily by working with the Security Summit to detect tax-related identity theft.

The IRS provides a reminder, “Taxpayers … are legally responsible for what is on their tax return even if it is prepared by someone else. Consumers can help protect themselves by choosing a reputable tax preparer.”

Source: “IRS concludes ‘Dirty Dozen’ list of tax scams for 2019: Agency encourages taxpayers to remain vigilant year-round”; IRS, March 20, 2019.