Tax Tip of The Week | No. 348 | Tweaked Tax Quiz Causing Fewer Concerns Among Taxpayers

Tax Tip of the Week | March 30, 2016 | No. 348 | Tweaked Tax Quiz Causing Fewer Concerns Among Taxpayers

Here is a recent update from the Ohio Society of CPAs…..The Ohio Department of Taxation’s ID confirmation quiz is prompting fewer complaints by taxpayers this year as state officials continue to use it to fight attempted fraud.You might remember that last year the quiz was the talk of Ohio’s tax community, as taxpayers complained about the questions. Things are going more smoothly in 2016, said Deborah Smith, administrator of the Ohio Department of Taxation’s Income Tax Division.“We've actually had comments thanking us for the changes we made,” Smith said. “We removed the relationship-type questions that were problematic last year. We were also able to eliminate the look back period on some. For instance, we no longer ask who you purchased a property from 20-30 years ago.“Overall it’s more positive this year.”This past summer, Gov. Kasich vetoed a budget provision that would have limited the questions to information obtained from the previous five years; Tax Commissioner Joe Testa told OSCPA such a limit would have hamstrung his department’s ability to examine tax returns.ODT said it blocked more than half a billion dollars in attempted fraud between July 2014 and the end of 2015.Testa said security measures have been expanded this year 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.