Tuesday, February 12th, 2019 @ 5:16PM

TESTIMONY OF TIMOTHY P. CAMUS DEPUTY INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR INVESTIGATIONS TREASURY INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR TAX ADMINISTRATION before the COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

CFEG reports on the testimony of Timothy P. Camus, Deputy Inspector General for Investigations, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, (TIGTA), before the Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, U.S. House of Representatives on April 19, 2016.

Tax refund fraud and identity theft is not limited to unscrupulous individuals operating from outside of the IRS. Mr. Camus, in his testimony, said there is an insider threat posed by IRS employees who use their official positions and access to IRS information in furtherance of these schemes.

He said one of the most significant recent cases involved an IRS employee who, through their access to IRS data, stole the IRS information of hundreds of taxpayers, and then used that information in an attempt to obtain between $550,000 and $1.5 million in fraudulent refunds.  The employee was able to successfully steal over $438,000 in fraudulent refunds. TIGTA was able to detect this criminal activity through its ability to review audit trails of accesses made by IRS employees to the IRS computer systems.

Mr. Camus testified that TIGTA remains very concerned that as the IRS has modernized its systems over the last several years, it has not built in adequate audit trails that would allow detection of an IRS employee’s unauthorized access to taxpayer information. The pace of progress in Information Technology at the IRS according to Mr. Camus is not at an acceptable level. He said currently on 12 of 82 applications subject to risk of unauthorized access and theft of taxpayer information are currently transmitting accurate and complete data. He estimates that the IRS will have this vulnerability addressed between Fiscal Year 2021 and Fiscal Year 2027.

Posted by cfegov
Categories: IRS Employees Engage In Tax Refund Identity Fraud