Balancing Small Business

The IRS has warned that identity theft is no longer the domain of small time thieves. Rather, it's increasingly undertaken by multinational criminal enterprises that obtain personal information online. Here are 5 of the largest cases of identity theft in 2015, including several involving residents of Georgia:

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  • 1.Keisha Lanier of Newnan, Georgia, and Tracy Mitchell were handed stiff sentences by a court in Alabama for heading a large identity theft ring which filed over 9,000 individual tax returns. The sources for the stolen identities included the US Army, several Alabama state agencies and a call center in Georgia. After receiving the refunds from financial institutions, the fraudsters printed out checks from check stock that had been sent to their homes. When the institutions stopped this practice, the thieves recruited US Postal Service employees who supplied them with addresses on their routes. The postal employees then handed over the checks for a fee. Via a sophisticated money laundering operation, the $10,000,000 in refunds received was cashed at businesses in Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky.
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    • 2.Georgia residents Patrice and Antonio Taylor, Jarrett Jones and Victoria Davis were convicted of filing over 1,100 fraudulent tax returns. A cellphone belonging to Patrice Taylor was used to call the IRS’s Automated Electronic Filing PIN Request 114 times. Taylor, who was employed at Tift Regional Hospital, stole the personal information of five patients and 531 sixteen year olds and used it to submit fake returns.
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    • 3.Three men based in Miami, Florida, stole personal identity information and filed hundreds of fake tax returns using online tax preparation programs. They requested that the refunds be placed on prepaid debit cards which were mailed to addresses they had supplied.
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    • 4.Stacy Williams of Statesboro, Georgia, was the last of 15 Georgia residents charged under a large identity theft and tax fraud scheme. Williams was sentenced to 94 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution.
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    • 5.A career criminal, his wife and other participants in Tampa, Florida, used lists and medical records of 7,000 people to obtain stolen names, social security numbers and dates of birth. They filed fake tax returns and opened prepaid debit cards to obtain $3,000,000 in refunds over three years.

To protect yourself from tax-related identify theft, ask your tax preparer or accountant about the expanded new security strategies implemented by the IRS, states and the tax industry for the 2016 filing season.

At Poe's Accounting Services and Lightning Tax Services, we specialize in simplifying our client's financials and taxes and taking the anxiety and confusion out of the accounting process.

Learn more about the tax benefits of having an office in your home. There are several deduction options....which one is right for your business?

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Tax season can be a stressful time. Imagine the added stress of receiving a phone call from someone claiming to be an IRS agent who demands an immediate payment and threatens you with arrest or deportation. The person may request your credit or debit card information or ask that you use a prepaid debit card or wire transfer. They also may refuse to answer your questions or allow you to appeal the amount supposedly due. Countless people are so intimidated or know so little about how the IRS actually operates that they comply with the demand.

In a less stressful scenario, you may receive a call or email from "the IRS" saying that they have your tax return but need some missing information – your bank account or social security number, for example – before they can process it. It could seem legitimate because they’re in possession of some of your personal information or show up as the IRS or a similar official name on your caller ID.

5 SIGNS THAT PROVE THE REQUEST IS PHONY

There are several ways to check the legitimacy of a call or email from the IRS. Here are five:

• 1. The IRS always mails you several bills if you owe taxes.
  
• 2. The IRS never calls or emails to verify or acquire personal information.
• 3. The IRS never threatens you with immediate arrest or deportation.
• 4. The IRS will not request a specific payment method.
• 5. The IRS always allows you to question or appeal the amount owed.

Additionally, as citizens of a free and democratic country, American taxpayers are protected from intimidation by the IRS through a Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

5 ACTIONS TO TAKE IF YOU THINK YOU’RE BEING SCAMMED

You need to protect yourself and others from these con artists who have forced more than 5,000 victims to hand over $28,500,000 in just three years.

Here’s what immediate action you can take:

• 1.Refuse to provide any information.
• 2.Hang up the phone.
• 3.Call the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 800-366-4484 or go to www.treasury.gov/tigta/.
• 4.Contact the Federal Trade Commission at www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/.
• 5.If you owe or think you owe taxes, call the IRS at 800-829-1040.
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You can also simply call your tax preparer or accountant for swift assistance and assurance. We have extensive experience in dealing with the IRS as well as the most up to date knowledge of current scams.

Coming soon Poe's Accounting Services will be publishing blogs to this page. It is our hope that the information provided is beneficial to our website visitors. If you have any questions, please email us at info@poesaccounting.com.