Saturday, February 6th, 2016 @ 11:12PM

CFEG announces that it will be hosting a Capitol Hill Briefing and Panel Discussion on February 23, 2016 – “Identity Theft Tax Refund Fraud – An Update.”

The event will take place between 1:00 and 2:30 p.m. at the United States Capitol Visitor Center: Congressional Meeting Room North. CFEG will have a distinguished panel of speakers who will discuss issues related to the Identity Theft Tax Refund Fraud problem.

According to a January, 2015 GAO Report (GAO-15-119), “Tax refund fraud associated with identity theft (IDT) is a complex and rapidly changing threat facing the nation’s tax system. IDT refund fraud occurs when a refund-seeking identity thief obtains an individual’s identifying information and uses it to file a fraudulent tax return.1 IDT refund fraud burdens honest taxpayers who have had fraudulent tax returns filed in their name because they must deal with delayed refunds as they authenticate their identities with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Additionally, IDT refund fraud is an attractive target for criminals with a potentially high payoff. While the estimates have inherent uncertainty, IRS estimated that it prevented $24.2 billion in fraudulent IDT refunds in filing season 2013. However, IRS also estimated, where data were available, that it paid $5.8 billion in fraudulent IDT refunds.2 Because of the difficulties in knowing the amount of undetected fraud, the actual amount could differ from these point estimates.”

Posted by cfegov
Categories: Uncategorized