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As weve reported before, the level of increased tax refund identity crime is risi ng.

That is when an individual uses your name, Social Security number and birth date to file a fake tax return with fake earnings and tax-withholding information to gather fraudulent refunds- fre quently on a simple to use, pre-paid ATM card, sent to a calculated, false addre ss. Then, when an individual files their real tax estimate the IRS flags it because one with the same SSN has already been submitted. The agency then processes your return by hand and scrutinizes everything on it, in order to substantiate your identity and establish which return is valid. This results in an indeterminate d elay as far as when youll receive your tax refund. The crime is possible partly because the IRS. now processes disbursements as fas t as possible, and matches up the essential validating info after the fact. Most companies, for instance, must provide earnings info to their staff on forms W-2 and 1099 by the end of January. But the employer does not need to file the same info with the government until the end of March. So when you file your tax retu rn, the IRS doesnt necessarily have your earnings info from your employer for com parison. The office of the national Taxpayer Advocate, which represents the interests of tax filers, has recommended the IRS point out tactics to get rid of the lengthy delay between processing refunds and reconciling eligibility. This sequence makes little sense, the advocates report for 2009 asserted. From a taxpayer point of vie w, the sequence leads to millions of cases where taxpayers accidentally make ove r claims that the IRS does not identify till months later on causing the taxpaye r not only a taxation liability but penalties and interest fees too. From the go vernments point of view, this sequence creates possibilities for crime and requir es the IRS to dedicate resources to retrieving refunds that shouldnt have been pa id and that it regularly cant recover. The IRS has been holding hearings on the right way to move to real-time tax proces sing so it can reconcile info on tax returns faster. With tax refund fraud, scammers can both mock paper W-2s or other earnings state ments and file the return by mail. Or, more frequently, they just make up the nu mbers and file electronically, because there is no need to submit tangible W-2s when filing electronically. By filing early, fraudsters exploit the time gap exp erienced by the IRS. So where does this leave the taxpayer? One essential part of the crime is that t he scammers hurry to file early, so the fraudulent return is the 1st one receive d by the IRS. That begs to the point of for filing your return earlier, instead of later on if you dont have a sound excuse to wait. This will reduce the prospec ts of a successful fake filing. If you or someone you know is facing other IRS problems, such as an audit or a l evy, dont hesitate to call JG Tax Group today. Our staff has over 120 years of co mbined IRS experience and can help you secure your finances.

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