Identity Theft Backlog

[Lee B]

Copied from the annual TIGTA Report

"As of April 2024, the IRS was taking more than 22 months to resolve identity theft victims’ assistance cases, plus several weeks to issue refunds, and it had approximately 500,000 unresolved cases in its inventory"

The IRS is still playing whack a mole

[Lee B]

4 hours ago, Lee B said:

Copied from the annual TIGTA Report

"As of April 2024, the IRS was taking more than 22 months to resolve identity theft victims’ assistance cases, plus several weeks to issue refunds, and it had approximately 500,000 unresolved cases in its inventory"

The IRS is still playing whack a mole

Correction  -  This was the annual report from the National Taxpayer Advocate not from TIGTA.

 

[Max W]

"Speed" and its various synonyms are not in the gub'ment's vocabulary.   

[Sara EA]

Back before there was the Security Summit, there was one year when ID theft soared.  We had 12 cases in our office alone, compared to one or two in prior years.  It took a lot less time to resolve then, and people got their refunds within a few months.  I guess the IRS had more staff then.  It takes a human and time to determine who the real taxpayer is.

My most memorable case was a physician who made hefty estimates.  Before he even filed he got a letter informing him that his refund was increasing by $46k! Apparently the thief filed the usual fake return claiming a refund of $3k or so, not knowing that estimates had been paid.  I immediately called the IRS to alert them not to pay out the refund, but I don't know if they ever did.  I hope they realized that I was representing the real taxpayer because the thief wouldn't call and tell them to send less money.