Beware of Possible Scams When Filing Tax Returns

By Tonya Sams

Have you received strange text messages from someone claiming to be the IRS? Or seen ads for tax preparers making promises that are too good to be true? Beware! Tax season is here, but so is tax scam season. The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland has a few suggestions to help you avoid being a victim of a tax scam.

“The typical scams involve either identity theft or attempts to intercept refunds,” said Patrick Miller, Staff Attorney in Legal Aid’s Economic Justice Practice Group. “These scams include somebody who's advertising that they are a tax preparer on social media. For instance, you may be used to getting a certain amount, but they will promise you that they can get you a larger return. The fraudulent tax preparer will prepare the tax return and claim credits that the taxpayer is not entitled to.”

If the IRS catches the errors in the filing, the taxpayer will be audited and must explain why they have claimed credits they are not entitled to. At this point, the refund is gone because the fraudulent tax preparer might have had the refund automatically deposited into their own bank account.

“Scammers may not do anything nefarious with the actual return itself but use the information that they're getting from taxpayers to prepare fraudulent returns in the future, beating the real taxpayer to the punch,” said Patrick. “The IRS is mandated to accept the first filing. The scammer will file the fraudulent return with a taxpayer's personal information, get the refund and then when the real taxpayer files their actual return, they end up getting rejected by the IRS because there's already a filed return.”

To avoid being scammed, it’s best to be proactive. One way is to analyze the tax preparer advertisements.

“The way tax law is set up, unless someone’s situation changes, like adding or deleting dependents, or a dramatic change in income, their income tax refund will be relatively consistent year to year,” Patrick said. “It could be a scam if someone is promising they can get you a lot more, that they know special secrets, that they have gotten thousands of dollars more for their clients or if they are promising something they can't deliver. If you receive something and are not completely convinced that it is from the IRS, you can go to their website. They have samples of all the forms that they send to taxpayers so you can compare what you received with what is on the website.”

To avoid being a victim of tax fraud, go to www.irs.gov/help/tax-scams/recognize-tax-scams-and-fraud and www.irs.gov/help/how-to-know-its-the-irs .

If you have been a victim of tax fraud, don’t panic – Legal Aid may be able to help! To apply for assistance, call 888-817-3777, or complete an online intake at lasclev.org/apply.

Story published in The Lakewood Observer: Beware of Possible Scams When Filing Tax Returns