Equifax Hack and Tax Season

[ETax847]

Will the IRS scrutinize returns more closely to prevent fraudulent tax filings as a result of the Equifax Hack?

[Lee B]

Since the IRS Budget has been cut by Congress for the last 5 years in a row and 11,000 fewer employees work there,

most of whom are retiring baby boomers who were their most experienced  employees, I seriously doubt it.

1.  According to the IRS statistics, there has been a significant drop in successful identity theft filed tax returns.

2.  The giant horsefly in the ointment is that Congress is currently pushing for the passage of a bill that would require a "Mini- Audit"  of every tax return claiming the EIC, which would totally strangle tax return processing by the IRS.

3.  Did anyone else notice the IRS news release where the  IRS announced that they were committed to pushing ahead  with replacing phone calls with employees with interactive app bots ?  It's going to be a whole new world!

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

I am looking forward to the mad rush of everyone wanting to file ASAP, because we've all been told to beat the hackers. I may very well lose business, because I just can't work that fast. I definitely can't get the larger returns out of here. 

[SaraEA]

According to IRS, we don't all need IP PTINs:  This from a NAEA newsletter:

"Equifax Update

Also during Thursday's NPL Practitioner meeting, IRS relayed information about the Equifax data breach affecting roughly 143 million taxpayers. According to IRS, the data breach exposed names, SSNs and mailing addresses; however, this information would likely not be very helpful when attempting to file a successful return since the Security Summit has 37 data point filters and new processes in place that would likely prevent the processing of a return without additional filing information. IRS clarified that at the time of the NPL meeting, affected or compromised taxpayers should only contact IRS through Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit, if they KNOW for a fact that someone is attempting to use their data for refund fraud and not if their information was included in the data obtained by the hackers during the breach. IRS will release updates on the breach when more information is available."

 

I still have concerns.  We still don't know whose info was hacked and what data were included.  We now know that Equifax collects a lot more than credit history, including employer, AGI, dependents, etc.  That info may be just what the hackers need to successfully file fake returns.  When will we know exactly what was taken and exactly who are victims? 

 

 

[Lee B]

41 minutes ago, SaraEA said:

 

I still have concerns.  We still don't know whose info was hacked and what data were included.  We now know that Equifax collects a lot more than credit history, including employer, AGI, dependents, etc.  That info may be just what the hackers need to successfully file fake returns.  When will we know exactly what was taken and exactly who are victims?

 

 

It is very unlikely that we will ever know those details !  Equifax doesn't appear to be the kind of stand up organization with a high level of integrity that would provide those details.  I predict that they will stall and try to run out the clock with assumption that this will all blow over.

 

Anyone who thinks that they will receive some measure of accountability out of this mess will likely be very disappointed !

 

Don't forget that this industry is basically unregulated !!!

Edited September 26, 2017 by jklcpa
for clarity, moved response to outside of the quote box