FraudNews
03-03-2013, 10:22 PM
Congress has yet to take any action on curbing tax refund fraud even as more and more people become victims of this crime.
Legislation helping the Internal Revenue Service to fight the increase of tax refund fraud has bee delayed in Congress. One lawmaker from Florida has asked that more action be taken on it.
According to Kathy Castor, a Democratic representative of Tampa, brought a bill before Congress in February, allowing the IRS to share extra tax data with local police. The measure has yet to see any real momentum but that could soon change.
Castor said tax refund fraud is a real problem in the state of Florida, and even lawmakers whose districts are not quite affected by the issue are seeing a gap in the Treasury.
House of Representatives and Senate tax-writing committee members do support legislation for anti-tax refund fraud. However, as of now, nobody has co-sponsored the bill.
The tax refund fraud occurs when thieves take names and social security numbers to file a fake electronic tax refund and claim them for their own.
According to Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, the amount of IRS criminal investigations into the identity theft has grown three times during the 2012 year and is set to double again for 2013.
Due to a stringent taxpayer protection law, the IRS cannot share the majority of tax data with the local police, which is something the bill Castor introduced would help relieve some of. Some privacy advocates are worried that sharing this information with local police may lead to other issues.
Former IRS official Jim Buttonow, who began a tax software business in North Carolina, said Congress is not putting identity theft fraud as the main priority.
Over a five-year span, tax refund fraud could leave taxpayers paying $21 billion, according to a Treasury Department watchdog.
Legislation helping the Internal Revenue Service to fight the increase of tax refund fraud has bee delayed in Congress. One lawmaker from Florida has asked that more action be taken on it.
According to Kathy Castor, a Democratic representative of Tampa, brought a bill before Congress in February, allowing the IRS to share extra tax data with local police. The measure has yet to see any real momentum but that could soon change.
Castor said tax refund fraud is a real problem in the state of Florida, and even lawmakers whose districts are not quite affected by the issue are seeing a gap in the Treasury.
House of Representatives and Senate tax-writing committee members do support legislation for anti-tax refund fraud. However, as of now, nobody has co-sponsored the bill.
The tax refund fraud occurs when thieves take names and social security numbers to file a fake electronic tax refund and claim them for their own.
According to Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, the amount of IRS criminal investigations into the identity theft has grown three times during the 2012 year and is set to double again for 2013.
Due to a stringent taxpayer protection law, the IRS cannot share the majority of tax data with the local police, which is something the bill Castor introduced would help relieve some of. Some privacy advocates are worried that sharing this information with local police may lead to other issues.
Former IRS official Jim Buttonow, who began a tax software business in North Carolina, said Congress is not putting identity theft fraud as the main priority.
Over a five-year span, tax refund fraud could leave taxpayers paying $21 billion, according to a Treasury Department watchdog.