June 17, 2015
The IRS joined with representatives of the tax software industry and state tax administrators on June 11, 2015 to announce the new collaborative effort to help protect the nation’s taxpayers from identity theft and tax fraud.
CrossLink has been part of this effort for the past three months and looks forward to being part of the continuing partnership with other tax industry companies, the IRS, and states in the months ahead to help combat the growing impact of identity theft to the federal and state tax systems.
This effort began in March 2015 with the establishment of three teams that focused on developing ways to improve tax return authentication and validation, information sharing between the industry, IRS, and states, and fraud detection and assessment of risks in order to develop strategies in preventing emerging threats.
The members of the IRS Security Summit agreed to several new initiatives in the following areas:
Taxpayer authentication
Industry and government groups identified numerous new data elements that can be included with the return to help authenticate the taxpayer and detect identity theft fraud.
Fraud detection
An agreement was made to expand the sharing of fraud leads between industry and government.
Information assessment
The groups will look at establishing a formalized Refund Fraud Information and Assessment Center to more efficiently share information between the public and private sector to help identify fraud schemes and reduce the risk to taxpayers.
Cyber-security framework
Industry agreed to align with the IRS and states under the National Institute of Standards and Technology cyber-security framework to promote the protection of the information technology infrastructure.
Taxpayer awareness and communication
A joint effort between the IRS, states, and industry to increase the effort to inform taxpayers and raise awareness of the importance of protecting taxpayers’ sensitive personal tax and financial data to help prevent identity theft and refund fraud.
To learn more about this new IRS, industry, and state collaborative effort to fight identity theft and protect taxpayers, see the following on the IRS website:
2018 Federal Return and Taxpayer Expectations
January 30, 2019
Reminder of 2018 Itemized Deduction Changes
January 16, 2019
Qualified Business Income Deduction (20% Deduction for Certain Pass-Through Income)
January 9, 2019
Reminder of Form 1040 Redesign
January 2, 2019
Important Reminders for the Upcoming 2019 Filing Season
November 28, 2018
2018 Changes to Form 8867 (Preparer Due Diligence Checklist)
November 9, 2018