Tax Tip of the Week | No. 339 | Tax Quiz to Return as ODT Claims $534 Million in Tax Theft Blocked

Tax Tip of the Week | January 27, 2016 | No. 339 | Tax Quiz to Return as ODT Claims $534 Million in Tax Theft Blocked

Here is a recent article published by the Ohio Society of CPAs….

Ohio Tax Commissioner Joe Testa recently said the ID Confirmation Quiz will return this upcoming tax season as the state continues to combat rampant fraud attempts on income tax returns.The Ohio Department of Taxation said it has blocked more than 297,000 fraudulent income tax returns attempting to steal $533.7 million in refunds since the flood of tax fraud started in 2014 in Ohio and nationally.In 2015, ODT saw a nearly 400 percent increase from the previous filing season in the number of fraudulent refund requests, but for significantly smaller amounts. Through November, ODT intercepted 232,898 suspicious returns claiming $256.5 million in illegitimate refunds.Testa said while he expects fraud attempts to grow in 2016, the state continues to develop more information and understanding of the schemes and is using that knowledge to further strengthen security efforts.“While these would-be thieves will continue to craft new strategies to steal from Ohioans, we’ll keep finding ways to stop them,” he said.He said the ID Confirmation Quiz will remain a key part of that effort.“We appreciate the taxpayer’s time in taking this extra step before receiving their refund,” Testa said. “We also heard their feedback and made some changes to improve the process and provide a better experience for taxpayers who take the quiz.”The quiz proved controversial, as legislators said during budget hearings that they were receiving complaints about it from constituents frustrated by the questions. However Gov. Kasich this past summer vetoed a budget provision that would have limited the questions to information obtained from the previous five years. Testa told OSCPA that the provision would have hamstrung his department’s ability to examine tax returns.He said one important change this year is that security measures will be expanded to protect the identity of minors, as well as adults. Criminals are also stealing the identities of minors, and if ODT identifies a situation where it appears a child’s identity has been compromised, the state will notify the household, allowing the filer to take additional steps to thwart illegitimate use of that minor’s identity.You can contact us in Dayton at 937-436-3133 and in Xenia at 937-372-3504.  Or visit our website.

Rick Prewitt – the guy behind TTW

...until next week.