For Immediate Release	Contact: Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334
November 7, 2013	Alexandra Booze 202-467-5318

CAGW: TIGTA Findings on Stolen Identity Refund Fraud Alarming; IRS Still Losing Billions to Scam Artists

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) reacted today to two new Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reports addressing the persistent phenomenon of stolen identity refund fraud (SIRF).  SIRF still poses a multi-billion dollar risk to taxpayers and causes undue hardship for victims.  CAGW has followed the SIRF phenomenon for several years.  While today’s TIGTA reports indicate that the IRS is making some progress in preventing new cases, tens of billions of taxpayers’ dollars are still at risk. 

One report revealed that some IRS prevention and screening techniques appear to be helping to identify fraudulent tax returns.  Unfortunately, for the 2011 tax filing season, TIGTA still uncovered 1.1 million undetected tax returns using Social Security numbers that bear a resemblance to previously confirmed identity theft tax returns.  Potentially fraudulent tax refunds totaled approximately $3.6 billion (a reduction of $1.6 billion from the previous report).  TIGTA also expanded its Tax Year 2011 analysis to include tax returns for Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN), and found that potentially fraudulent tax refunds issued for these totaled approximately $385 million.

The second report reviewed a statistical sample of 100 identity theft cases and found that it took the IRS an average of 312 days to resolve them.  Furthermore, significant inactivity on the 100 cases TIGTA reviewed averaged 277 days.  TIGTA also revealed that the IRS has “still not taken action to prevent multiple tax refunds from being deposited in the same bank account.”

“The reports issued by TIGTA today prove that identity theft continues to be a serious problem for both taxpayers and the IRS,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “Identity theft scam artists continue to get away with billions at the expense of hard-working, legitimate taxpayers.”  In order to shed additional light on the ongoing epidemic of SIRF, CCAGW will be hosting a congressional briefing and luncheon in room SVC 201-00 of the Capitol Visitors Center from noon until 2 pm on November 12, 2013. 

Guests will include Christopher Lee, Senior Attorney, National Taxpayer Advocate; Steven Toporoff, Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, Bureau of Consumer Protection (at the Federal Trade Commission); and Paul Williams, Police Detective, Town of Davie, Florida and victim of SIRF.  The event is open to Hill staff and media, space is limited, so please RSVP to Alexandra Booze at abooze@cagw.org.

CAGW is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.