U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) raised concerns on Monday about vulnerabilities in the IRS’s Identity Protection (IP) Personal Identification Number (PIN) program that have compromised taxpayers’ personal information.
Rounds and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), both members of the Senate Banking Committee, cited concerns about the IP PIN program in a recent bipartisan letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
“As (Koskinen is) aware, taxpayer identity theft fraud occurs when a criminal obtains the name and social security number from an unsuspecting taxpayer,” Rounds and Merkley wrote. “The thief files a fraudulent, often inflated, tax return in an effort to steal the rightful taxpayers’ refund. Often taxpayers only become aware of the fraud when they attempt to file a legitimate tax return and discover a return has been filed and a refund issued in their name. For many Americans, being cheated out of their refund is financially devastating.”
The senators said that IRS efforts to curb taxpayer identity fraud should include proactive steps to protect all taxpayers from identity theft before it occurs rather than just reactive steps to help people who have already fallen victim.
“In March, the IRS admitted that more than 130,000 IP PIN accounts could have been compromised and in that same release, the IRS also stated that it has stopped 800 fraudulent returns connected,” Rounds and Merkely wrote. “This is a step in the right direction, but clearly more needs to be done to protect the more than 130,000 tax accounts that may be at risk.”
The senators requested information about extra scrutiny the IRS is giving to the tax returns of the 130,000 victims of fraud, and about steps the IRS is taking to make the authentication process stronger to prevent future fraud.