The latest news from the IRS that there was certain and highly sophisticated criminals that was able to steal confidential tax information from the IRS’s website service “Get Transcripts” program, to wit the IRS has suspended because of this criminal activity.  It begs a question, of what does the IRS does in such a breach of privacy and/or identity theft.

What the IRS does first of all would send a notice to the individual taxpayer, who was affected (it is projected that the IRS would send approximately 200,000 letters due to this criminal activity) stating that identify theft occurred on the individual’s tax account.  Next the IRS would send a notice of and assign what is called an Identity Protection Person Identification Number (IP PIN), which a specialized number that confirms the identification of the particular individual taxpayer, and without having this specialized assigned number, a the individual’s tax returns would not be able to be electronically field, and also would significantly in the processing of a postal mailed tax return.  Furthermore, the IRS does have a complete division on identity theft that continues to monitor any individual’s tax account that has suffered identity theft.   Finally, if an individual person discovers that identify theft occurred (either through the IRS or through other independent sources), he/she could file a statement with the IRS, and the likelihood is that the case would be monitored by the IRS’s identify theft division, and of course the individual taxpayer would be assigned an Identity Protection Person Identification Number (IP PIN).

So if you think you are one of these 200,000 taxpayers that was affected by this criminal identify theft, and/or you reasonable believe that identify theft occurred on either your personal tax account directly, or the identity might indirectly affect your personal tax account with the IRS, please let us know at [email protected] as soon as you can, and we would be more than happy to assist you on this identity theft issue, from a tax prospective.