Exactly. Everybody has unlimited calling anyway.

This IRS thing isn't some kind of phone charges scam Don. That went out 20 years ago. I'm a tax pro and get calls from clients about this a lot and it's a big problem. The worst one is someone claiming to be a federal marshal and you owe thousands in back taxes. If you don't pay a substantial portion of it RIGHT NOW with a credit card, they're sending a marshal to your door to haul you off to jail. A client recorded one of those and it's scary and fairly official sounding. I could see this working on a lot of people who are not too bright for whatever reason.

The other big deal is identity thieves filing tax returns in your name using stolen employer information and your SSN. That's all that's needed to efile a return with numbers showing a nice refund with a bogus address on the return. Having a different address from last year doesn't raise any red flags because people move all the time. The check gets mailed out and the thief cashes it. They typically will file a bunch of returns using that address fast then move and do it again. Just recently the IRS now holds more than 5 returns with the same address on them.

In an effort to be taxpayer friendly Congress forces the IRS to get the refunds out immediately and if it turns out there was a problem they send out letters months later. Thieves know this and take advantage of it. The real solution is no refunds go out until until each return is fully processed but everybody knows how well that would go over...

These ID theft cases don't actually cost you any money but it's a pain. You file your real return after the thief files one in your name and it gets bounced. You're now on a treadmill working with the IRS getting it sorted out which thankfully has gotten much faster this year. You can then file your actual return and they investigate the bogus one.

I had a client call me last year saying he got a Treasury check for over 14K and we had not done his 2014 return yet. I had him take it to his local federal building where the IRS office was and turn it in. He did and they opened an investigation. This was a case where the thief screwed up and used the wrong address on the return.

I have more stories but this is enough, you guys get the idea. This is a big problem for the country.

Bob

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