In May 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that identity thieves illegally accessed tax information tied to approximately 114,000 taxpayers with unsuccessful attempts made on about 111,000 additional taxpayer accounts.
Three months later, the IRS revealed that, after additional review, they had discovered that at least 220,000 additional taxpayer accounts were potentially affected. As before, access was attempted – but failed – for even more taxpayer accounts (the IRS puts this number at 170,000).
Those numbers were alarming – but the news is actually worse than first (or second) thought. The IRS has now announced that additional review has indicated that approximately 390,000 additional taxpayer accounts were potentially accessed. In addition, as before, more accounts – 295,000 taxpayers – were targeted but access to transcripts was not successful.
The news comes just as the tax preparation season for 2016 is heating up. The IRS will begin notifying those taxpayers by mail beginning February 29: those notices will include free identity theft protection services as well as Identity Protection PINs. The IRS is also flagging those affected taxpayers’ Social Security numbers for extra scrutiny, as well as sharing that information with state tax authorities.
(More on Identity Protection PINs here.)
That brings the total of potentially affected taxpayer accounts to 700,000, more than double the total previously estimated. The information was discovered after a nine-month inquiry into the earlier breach by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). In response, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said about the new information:
The IRS is committed to protecting taxpayers on multiple fronts against tax-related identity theft, and these mailings are part of that effort. We appreciate the work of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to identify these additional taxpayers whose accounts may have been accessed. We are moving quickly to help these taxpayers.
In addition to those measures to protect taxpayers affected by the cyberattack, the “Get Transcript” tool on the IRS website remains unavailable for online access. Taxpayers can still request copies of transcripts by mail but be aware that it takes longer: the IRS advises taxpayers to plan ahead.
This most recent announcement about taxpayer accounts is not related to the IRS hardware failure reported earlier this tax season. The hardware failure affected several parts of the IRS site but was largely resolved the next day.
