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Old 03-09-2016, 05:47 PM   #121
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Originally Posted by audreyh1 View Post
It's not like the IRS can use any revenue saved from flagging fraudulent tax returns to supplement its budget, LOL! It already has an established budget it must stick to.
Well, I worked on cost reduction programs, but I didn't get a % of the savings, nor did my department.

We got to keep our jobs (maybe)! Now get back to work, that was last year, what have you done for us lately!

Fraud like this ought to be child's play to fix. If the IRS can't do it, they should be shut down (and some other form put in place)..



Incredible.

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Old 03-09-2016, 05:51 PM   #122
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I e-filed our tax return on Feb 19 and the refund was in our bank on March 2nd.
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Old 03-09-2016, 06:07 PM   #123
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I apply any refund to next year's estimated tax payments, which lowers my April 15 (18) tax payment. At least I don't have to deal with waiting to get money then turning around and giving it back.

Of course, we were doing the happy dance when our return was accepted, as that was the first fraud gauntlet cleared. Now it doesn't matter how long the rest of it takes to resolve if any issues come up.
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Old 03-09-2016, 06:31 PM   #124
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More info on how these fraudulent files work from a June 2015 Sixty Minutes The Tax Refund Scam - CBS News

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You would think that the IRS computers would notice that they were sending thousand of checks to a handful of addresses. But they didn't. And you might expect that the IRS would match taxpayer returns with legitimate W-2 forms filed by employers. It doesn't do that either because the law requires refund checks to be sent out within six weeks and employer W-2s are often not available until months later. So if a bogus return is received before a legitimate one, the check will go out to the crooks.
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Even Ferrer's old boss, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, has had his identity stolen in an IRS refund scam. And a number of members of the task force have been victimized, including North Miami Beach Police Officer Rocky Festa, who says local police departments have been hit hard.

George "Rocky" Festa: Aventura had nearly their entire department, which was 50-some-odd officers got hit. Davie Fire and Davie Police, it was in the hundreds. They were all victims of tax return fraud.

Festa and his partner Craig Caitlin now work exclusively on tax refund cases and were among the first to discover the breadth of the scam five years ago, when they began finding tax documents and stacks of pre-paid debit cards when they pulled over suspicious vehicles.
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If you want, the IRS will electronically deposit tax refunds directly onto these cards no questions asked, eliminating the need for crooks to ever actually set foot inside a bank or try to cash a refund check. They can spend the money in stores, or withdraw it from ATMs.

Steve Kroft: So is this kind of like a throwaway phone?

Craig Caitlin: Yes, sir. Yeah, once the money goes on the card, you empty the money off on ATMs and you put the card in the garbage. It's pretty good.

The prepaid cards are now used by millions of Americans to collect $142 billion in government entitlements like Social Security and Medicare payments. IRS Commissioner Koskinen thinks it's an invitation to commit fraud.

Commissioner Koskinen: The prepaid cards are the currency of criminals. Our problem is you can't distinguish the number of a prepaid card from a legitimate bank account.
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Old 03-09-2016, 06:57 PM   #125
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Did you eFile? If so, your filing would have been rejected very quickly if someone already filed using your credentials.

If your eFile was accepted, no one (has yet) filed using your SS#.
yes, I eFiled. That's what I thought but I wasn't sure.
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Fed Tax E File Rejected - somebody already filed using my SS number - what to...
Old 03-09-2016, 09:26 PM   #126
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Fed Tax E File Rejected - somebody already filed using my SS number - what to...

My kid filed Feb 14 and she got her money last week. No eFile.


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Old 03-10-2016, 10:50 AM   #127
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The IRS (actually social security which forwards it, w-2) does not get W-2 or 1099 info until 3/31. so if you file before they have no way of checking. You get the forms earlier so that corrections if needed can be made before they are sent to the IRS.
That's the timing of the form, which I agree is probably what's written into law. But from a logical perspective*, my real, hard-earned dollars are in an account somewhere that the IRS must be keeping track of. Maybe it's not 100% accurate for everyone due to some rare payroll glitch, but I stand by my "milliseconds" opinion that it would take that long to determine if the withholding balance on the return was significantly higher than what is in the withholding account.

*There I go again, using the words "logic" and "law" in the same paragraph
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Old 03-10-2016, 11:30 AM   #128
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I tell you this....the scum who steal other people's identity or commit fraud...if caught and found guilty should be EXECUTED!
Stocks and pillory; perhaps in front of Walmart might be quite effective
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Old 03-10-2016, 01:13 PM   #129
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Stocks and pillory; perhaps in front of Walmart might be quite effective

Additionally, throw in an assortment of Singapore canes and we could have a very effective justice system with cost savings to the taxpayer as an added benefit.


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Old 03-10-2016, 01:40 PM   #130
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That's the timing of the form, which I agree is probably what's written into law. But from a logical perspective*, my real, hard-earned dollars are in an account somewhere that the IRS must be keeping track of. Maybe it's not 100% accurate for everyone due to some rare payroll glitch, but I stand by my "milliseconds" opinion that it would take that long to determine if the withholding balance on the return was significantly higher than what is in the withholding account.
Sensational,

I think you may misunderstand how this works. My understanding is that the employer makes periodic payments to the IRS throughout the year but it is all done under their EIN number -- no employee numbers are part of the payments.

It is only at the end of the year when the W2's go out that the payments are broken up and reported on an individual basis -- therefore no millisecond checking would be possible under this scenario.

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Old 03-10-2016, 02:51 PM   #131
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Additionally, throw in an assortment of Singapore canes
... and ask for volunteers to wield them. Free labor for the justice system, free opportunities to work on upper body strength for the volunteers, free entertainment for the observers. Where are the negatives here?
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Old 03-10-2016, 03:57 PM   #132
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Sensational,

I think you may misunderstand how this works. My understanding is that the employer makes periodic payments to the IRS throughout the year but it is all done under their EIN number -- no employee numbers are part of the payments.

It is only at the end of the year when the W2's go out that the payments are broken up and reported on an individual basis -- therefore no millisecond checking would be possible under this scenario.

-gauss
This explains why you have to enclose a copy of your w-2 or 1099 with your return, because that is the only way the IRS knows how much was withheld by you. If you put the delay in (no refunds before april 15) then the IRS would not need that information.
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Old 03-10-2016, 04:02 PM   #133
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I think you may misunderstand how this works. My understanding is that the employer makes periodic payments to the IRS throughout the year but it is all done under their EIN number -- no employee numbers are part of the payments.

It is only at the end of the year when the W2's go out that the payments are broken up and reported on an individual basis -- therefore no millisecond checking would be possible under this scenario.
The fastest way to get the right answer is to jump out there with an incorrect assumption, hehe! Thanks for straightening me out sir. So although the IRS holds my money, it's not held in my name.
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Old 03-10-2016, 05:32 PM   #134
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I filed on Feb 29th and signed up for a text alert when direct deposit is on the way. No text alert yet, but the IRS made the deposit to my account 3 days ago. I just happened to get online and check my bank balance today. My state refund came yesterday.


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Old 03-10-2016, 08:53 PM   #135
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This explains why you have to enclose a copy of your w-2 or 1099 with your return, because that is the only way the IRS knows how much was withheld by you. If you put the delay in (no refunds before april 15) then the IRS would not need that information.

If you efile do you attach w2? I don't efile but I thought the info is just entered manually.


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Old 03-10-2016, 09:14 PM   #136
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If you efile do you attach w2? I don't efile but I thought the info is just entered manually.


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You don't attach a W2 when e-filing, you can enter the info manually or import it from one of the payroll companies that support imports, such as ADP.
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Old 03-10-2016, 09:23 PM   #137
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If you efile do you attach w2? I don't efile but I thought the info is just entered manually.
If you efile, you do not attach a paper W2.
You put the data in manually typically. I'm not sure if some programs can download W2 data. Some programs will download 1099 data from some sources.

I would not think attaching a W2 would help prevent fraud. It would be easy to print a fake one.
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Old 03-10-2016, 09:29 PM   #138
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If you efile do you attach w2? I don't efile but I thought the info is just entered manually.


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No, no submission of W2 with eFile. That's clearly something that broke going to eFile, since the IRS used to rely on an attached W2 with paper filing.

Yes, W2s could be faked, but that's a lot more work suddenly.
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Old 03-10-2016, 09:43 PM   #139
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.Link? Never heard of multiple refunds going to a single address. I heard the thieves employ numerous friends and relatives all with a different names and addresses. .....
IRS Sent $46,378,040 in Refunds to 23,994 ‘Unauthorized’ Aliens at 1 Atlanta Address

"CNSNews.com) - The Internal Revenue Service sent 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46,378,040 to “unauthorized” alien workers who all used the same address in Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)."

Here is one link out to many, and it was done 5 years ago, plenty of time to fix this stupidity..
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Old 03-12-2016, 08:44 AM   #140
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I'm glad I didn't try to get the special IP PIN for identity theft victims.
Getting IP PIN provides more security than not having one, for the reasons Brian Krebs mentioned in his comments to that article - thieves do not know that you have the PIN when they file so it gets rejected, and it's still an additional layer of security that has to be hacked to get your return approved.

Yes, it was insanely stupid of the IRS to allow website access to these PINs with easy to guess questions (they should have re-sent it via mail as others have mentioned). But getting an IP PIN is still not a bad idea to help prevent ID theft via tax filing, and the wife and I both have them because GA is a huge fraudster state.
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