You have a right to know what thieves are doing with your information.
That’s the surprising word out of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) this week. In a clear change in policy, IRS has agreed to provide victims of identity theft with copies of the fraudulent tax returns filed using their personal and financial information. Prior to this change, victims were notified that some or all of their information had been used to file fraudulent returns but no further information was made available. That left some taxpayers concerned about the amount of information that third parties had about their personal and financial details.
The change in policy is attributable to a request made by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH). On May 7, 2015, Sen. Ayotte wrote a letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, noting that she found it “deeply troubling that the IRS does not help victims by providing them with copies of the fraudulent returns so that they may determine what information was stolen.” She ended by saying that “Identity theft can cause problems for victims for years, and the IRS should do whatever it can to minimize this burden – starting with providing tax identity theft victims with a copy of the fraudulent return.” (You can read the full text of her letter here.)
On May 29, Commissioner Koskinen responded to Sen. Ayotte, writing, “As a result of your letter, we have decided to change our policy regarding disclosure of fraudulent identity theft returns to victims whose name and SSN the fraudulent return was filed under…We will put together a procedure that will enable victims to receive, upon request, redacted copies of fraudulent returns filed in their name and SSN.”
Redacted returns are necessary because multiple Social Security numbers could be on a single tax return. Releasing tax returns which have multiple Social Security numbers prior to redaction could compromise someone else’s identity.
The exact process and timeline for providing copies of those returns has not yet been made public. Nonetheless, Ayotte called the decision to provide those returns “a positive step” that will help further protect victims of identity theft.
Identity theft continues to be a problem for taxpayers and has been a top priority at IRS. From 2011 through October 2014, the IRS stopped 19 million suspicious returns and protected more than $63 billion in fraudulent refunds.
