Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
According to a recent report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the IRS failed to tell over 1.1 million Americans their identities were stolen.
Thanks, guys.
According to the Washington Free Beacon:
“In cases of employment-related identity theft, the discrepancy results from the innocent taxpayer’s stolen identity being used by another individual to gain employment,” the inspector general states. “This can cause significant burden to innocent taxpayers, including the incorrect computation of taxes based on income that does not belong to them.”
The 1.1 million cases of identity theft that the inspector general found from February 2011 to December 2015 involved so-called Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers that did not match the Social Security numbers that were listed on other documents included with the tax return, such as a W-2. The inspector general said that the IRS is in a unique position to identify these cases and should alert taxpayers when these occur.
“We recommended that the IRS implement procedures that are proactive in timely alerting taxpayers when the IRS becomes aware that a taxpayer’s identity has been stolen,” said the inspector general. “Although the IRS agreed with the recommendation and responded that it was taking corrective actions, taxpayers identified as victims are still not being notified.”
The IRS announced in July that it would begin to notify victims of identity theft beginning next year.
The beginning of next year? How is that helpful?
Once again, the bureaucracy of the IRS has proven it’s too bloated and incompetent to function.
