How To Protect Yourself From Tax Fraud

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What Has Been Going On This Tax Season?

Although the 2015 tax season is only a few weeks old, we’ve already seen the popular online tax service Turbo Tax suspend State tax returns because of a number of suspected fraudulent returns that occurred as soon as the season began.

This is all coming off of a 2014 tax season that saw the IRS pay out over $5 billion, with a “B”, in fake returns last season.

How Can You Protect Yourself?

Based on the annual growth of tax-related identity scams, the IRS has been proactive in helping identify and trying to head off many problems before they become severe.

The IRS has created a page featuring the “Dirty Dozen” tax scams that they’ve identified this tax season and how you can avoid them.

Things You Can Do To Avoid Tax-Related Identity Theft:

Regularly monitor your credit for conspicuous activity on sites like annualcreditreport.com and freecreditreport.com.
Shred mail that contains any kind of identifying info such as name, address, birth date or anything more specific like your social security or bank information.
Make sure your mail doesn’t sit in the mailbox, especially since some employers send W-2s in the mail, and other tax-related mail may show up.
Do your taxes early. If they’re done, no one will be able to file them again afterward.
If you do them online, make sure the site is wrapped in an SSL tag. At a minimum, any site you leave personal information on should have secure HTTPS access.

If you think you’ve been a target of tax-related identity theft, make sure you contact the IRS and fill out the Identity Theft Affidavit, Form 14039.

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