We’re now in day two of the tax filing season and scammers are trying to take advantage of you. A report released past year by the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that about 2.9 million incidents of tax-related identity theft occurred in 2013, up from almost 1.8 million in 2012.
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With the 2016 tax season officially open, taxpayers are just beginning to think about getting their finances organized in time for the April 18 filing deadline.
Through March of a year ago, about 366,000 people received calls by scammers who said they were from the IRS.
The IRS began accepting tax returns Tuesday and if you’re a procrastinator, you’re in luck this year as taxes are due a few days later than normal, April 18. “In 2015, more than 424,000, or almost 86 percent, of North Dakota individual income taxpayers filed their income tax return electronically”. There will be new security requirements when you’re preparing your taxes online, especially when you sign in to your tax software account, to better protect your tax software account and personal information.
“If you want a quick refund and you want convenience and ease in filing a tax return, get to a computer and let the software hold your hand”, said IRS spokesperson for Nevada Raphael Tulino. Assistance is provided by IRS-certified volunteers who provide free basic income tax return preparation with electronic filing to qualified individuals. The Internal Revenue Service expects more than 150 million tax returns to be filed this year. Libraries and post offices offer free tax forms to taxpayers.
In 2016, several software providers are also offering the easy importation of Form W-2 information. “However, that does no one any good if you don’t access the credit or if your filing is rejected by the IRS because you prepared it wrong, you didn’t have the correct documentation”.
· Payroll deduction. Set up automatic direct deposit contributions to myRA through an employer.
If a taxpayer or anyone on their return purchased coverage from the Health Insurance Marketplace, they may be eligible for the premium tax credit.
Taxpayers who have myRA accounts may use Free File to deposit their tax refunds or a portion of them.
“The IRS has ignored our earlier recommendations and we hope they take more notice of what we are saying now”, said a National Taxpayer Advocate spokesman.
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In the background, the department will be using even more sources of data to analyze both paper and online returns to stay ahead of the ever-evolving criminal schemes to steal taxpayer money.
