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Americans at Risk of Identity Theft as They File their Tax Returns (betanews.com)
Ian Barker, writing for BetaNews: As we move into the tax return season a new study reveals that attitudes to identity theft and a pattern of poor practices are leaving much of the public vulnerable. Data security and ID theft protection company CyberScout has carried out its second annual Tax Season Risk Report and finds 58 percent of Americans are not worried about tax fraud in spite of federal reports of 787,000 confirmed identity theft returns in 2016, totaling more than $4 billion in potential fraud. Among other findings are that only 35 percent of taxpayers demand that their preparers use two-factor authentication to protect their clients' personal information. Less than a fifth (18 percent) use an encrypted USB drive to save important documents like tax worksheets, W-2s, 1099s or 1040s. And another 38 percent either store tax documents on their computer's hard drive or in the cloud, approaches that are susceptible to a variety of hacks.
The biggest problem is that your tax return goes through 3rd parties like Quicken, H&R Block, etc. If there were a direct upload to the IRS, I'd use it, but even Free File is run by 3rd parties. So I use a non-Adobe-Acrobat PDF editor to fill out the tax forms & mail them. In 2013, the USPS lost both my federal & state forms even though I used certified mail... I eventually had to submit duplicates, the tax forms were never found.
"And another 38 percent either store tax documents on their computer's hard drive or in the cloud, approaches that are susceptible to a variety of hacks." - really? So, other than a local storage ("hard drive") or remote storage ("cloud"), what other approaches are there to storing documents that are not susceptible to any hacks? Paper printouts? :) This article is brought to you by association of paper manufacturers.
Encrypt your hard drive, choose good passwords for your cloud storage and don't share them with others. Your data is at most risk at your doctors office, btw (where they have all of your personal information, along with SSN and family records). I had 2 notifications of personal information theft from doctor's billing processor's offices in the last 2 years.
I guess you were just deported?
All these individual security tactics are NOT where the problem lies. You can encrypt your drives, use TFA, and shred all the paper. But thieves steal the enitire DB at Intuit or irs.gov. American attitudes are properly aligned. We don't control the databases where most theft occurs.
they can't hack the paper forms I mail in.
My tax information never touches a computer if I can help it.
only 35 percent of taxpayers demand that their preparers use two-factor authentication to protect their clients' personal information. Less than a fifth (18 percent) use an encrypted USB drive to save important documents like tax worksheets, W-2s, 1099s or 1040s. And another 38 percent either store tax documents on their computer's hard drive
This article's security advice is very questionable. What's wrong with storing sensitive data on a hard drive? Why should an encrypted USB drive be used? Is there something wrong with paper documents or even unencrypted USB drives? And why is two-factor authentication considered necessary? Two-factor authentication is only one of many different strategies for ensuring security.
Worse yet, the article doesn't even mention last year's fiasco with the IRS e-filing PINs.
ordinarians, unchosen for sure... hand in hand we stand..
787000/330000000 = less than a 1:500 chance. This just in: Site that wants to sell you peace of mind is trying to frighten you into thinking you need peace of mind.
What income?
Some years ago I filed for unemployment benefits and discovered that a C RAMOS had used my Social Security number to work under. Notified EDD and IRS. EDD removed C RAMOS contributions for a smaller but honest weekly unemployment benefit. The IRS sent me a PIN to use with my tax return. Without the PIN, I can't file. No one else can either. I've been filing every federal tax return with a PIN.
Nah, I am an undocumented tax payer.
Not just because it's much less likely to be hacked. I just want the IRS to feel some pain trying to read my chicken-scratch handwriting to make up for what I feel when handing them my money.
IRS motto: We've got what it takes to take what you've got.
Have gnu, will travel.
They kicked his dog.
Not an issue for Greeks and major companies.
The IRS already know everything I send to them. The only reason they have me write it up and send it in again is to generate coprorate welfare for the tax prep industry. They could make a lot of this go away by simply sending me a summary and if I agree with it no further action is necessary and no further confidential uploads to the IRS are needed.
Nullius in verba
I still file mine hardcopy in the mail since the 20th century. So no worries of internet hacking.
Actually one concern is throughout the years there have been staff cuts at IRS, and probably more soon. A friend who has a accounting/taxes business says Fresno office used to have a couple auditors that were good to work with (yes, not all tax audits are perilous, occasionally they want to review certain returns). So maybe filing hardcopy might soon be a thing of the past as less competent people to deal with returns.
mfwright@batnet.com
Not paying your taxes makes you smart!*
* Only applies to billionaires. Attempts to apply this to someone in the middle class may result in jail time.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
On March 30, 2016 someone filed a fraudulent return with a refund going to a debit card. I found out when the IRS returned a payment. It's been a big headache with lots of paperwork. Only one of the credit bureaus accepted my paperwork to freeze my credit. The others gave bogus reasons for rejecting my application. My bank couldn't handle a auto loan. My suggestion: file your taxes early before the criminals can.
I'm all for someone stealing my return this year. I owe the IRS money so if someone wants to jack my negative refund, I can live with that.
but if I hadn't, they'd have been welcome to pay what I owed.
As a paperwork filer, I have never had my taxes spoofed. However, I found out the hard way that my city taxes go to my state for processing. The State contracts with a private company to save money. In the process, a comedy of errors can occur.
When I received a notice in October that I had not filed my 2015 taxes, I drove to city hall. The city employee quickly popped up my scanned form in her computer, told me that this situation has occurred with many other taxpayers, and advised my to personally hand my forms to her this Spring.
As a 1099 contractor, I have to send a check with my return. No refund to steal, no problem.
I'm seeing a lot of W2 spearphishing.
Note the return domain CORNPANY.com not COMPANY.com.
Just file as Donald Trump. He's on the no taxes owed and no taxes paid list do you're good to go.
Oh you don't need to be a billionaire, you just need to know how to do it.
Honestly a day's worth of research and I'm sure you could figure it out.
Even if you don't want to jump through too many hoops, the simplest route is start a (limited liability) corporation, ask your employer to "hire" you as a "contractor," have them pay out to your corporation, you turn around and pay yourself a dividend instead of a salary. Some companies would be willing to do this, as they would no longer have to offer you insurance or other perks.
Federal Corporate tax is now 15% in the US. If you keep track of it, you can deduct fuel and car payments, office use of home, parts of your home utilities (* this can all vary where you live. I'm from Canada and don't know much about US taxes).
All perfectly legal. Granted things like medical insurance becomes much harder to obtain, but depending on what you save in taxes may make up for it.
Disclaimer: I'm not an accountant. Your mileage may vary. I am not a US citizen and very naive as to how the US tax code works. I'm mostly just writing this to be funny, but also it's true, because I do all of the above except I actually run my own business and is not simply a tax dodge.
If it's so risky, why haven't Trump's tax returns leaked yet?
Only applies to billionaires who lose tons of money, so when they don't pay taxes, what's really happening is they're just shrinking their losses some. In the end they still lost money.
We are talking about a nation of people who think it is somehow wrong not put your real name on Facebook and publish all your details where everyone can easily find them. If the thief cannot find enough there they can look you up on LinkdIn. Why would anyone go anywhere else to steal someone's identity?
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
ask your employer to "hire" you as a "contractor,"
At least in Canada, CRA has some pretty strict definitions of what a contractor is. If you're basically going back to full time employment for one employer, you are not a contractor and CRA will catch that if you're ever audited./p
Why is it we pay taxes again? When the Government Accountability Office (you know, the office responsible for auditing the government's finances) states that portions of the US federal budget are completely unauditable. There is a 6.5 trillion dollar hole in the department of defense budget. Nobody knows where that money went. Nobody is talking about it in the news. Nobody seems to really give a damn or think it's a big deal. $6.5 Trillion!!!! So if I were to decide that hey, I don't really want to contribute to this criminal bullshit anymore, somehow that makes me a criminal for "tax evasion"? Is this a fucking joke? Is it called freedom when you get put in a cage for not wanting to support irresponsible stewards of our money? After income taxes, gas taxes, sales taxes they are siphoning off nearly 50% of my labor. And if I disagree with how much they're taking and how it's being used I'm looked at like scum for not wanting to "pay my fair share" (let alone being fined or put in jail). We are nothing but resources to be extracted and used. This is just the new version of slavery. Don't be fooled by the illusion of freedom. As soon as you object to being economically raped you will be punished.
Yet another good reason why we should abolish the personal and corporate income tax in favor of the fair tax The fair tax is a consumption tax, but avoids any disproportionate impact on the poor by providing a pre-paid tax credit in the amount that a poor person would pay in taxes over the course of a year.
... and of course we would be far less vulnerable to this sort of tax fraud.
Everyone understands that taxation creates a disincentive for particular behavior, which is precisely why tobacco is taxed at such ridiculous levels. Why the hell do we tolerate a tax system which creates a disincentive for working and producing things?
Eliminating the ridiculously complex, multi-thousand page income tax code also gets rid of the government's favorite and most convenient mechanism for handing out favors to wealthy special interests. It creates an incentive for businesses to invest in the U.S. & makes U.S. goods more competitive vs. imports