IRS Collaboration with Tax Preparation Industry and the States: Is it good or bad?
IRS announced that it is teaming up the tax preparation and software companies , payroll and tax financial processors, and state tax administrators to combat identity theft refund fraud. Is this good or bad for us tax preparers and our clients? First let me say that I get four or five new tax related identity theft cases a year. I know the misery and frustration it causes my clients and I would like nothing better than to see all this put to an end along with the dishonest tax preparers who do this. The way it will work is that taxpayer authentication process will be shared and looked at more closely by IRS and the tax software provider. IRS will look at the Internet Protocol number and "addresses" to see if there is anything improper or repetitive (if you buy a personal tax software program and use it 200 times that might be improper or repetitive). The entire tax industry will share analytical information about their filings with IRS an...