The IRS teams up to fight scams

The Internal Revenue Service, state tax agencies and groups in the tax industry hope there’s strength in numbers, and in coordination, when fighting scams.

The new task force, called the Coalition Against Scam and Scheme Threats, will be a joint effort to combat the growth of scams and schemes threatening taxpayers and tax systems.

Convened at the request of IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, the coalition of federal and state tax agencies, software and financial companies and national tax pro associations will work to expand outreach and education about emerging scams, develop new approaches to identify potentially fraudulent returns at the point of filing and improve infrastructure.

“We will do more to work closely together, share information faster, respond quickly to threats and quickly alert the public to new and emerging threats,” Werfel said. “Our goal is to have a mass effect on this expanding problem that’s spread on social media and through bad actors.”

Other participants include state tax agencies represented by the Federation of Tax Administrators, the Council for Electronic Revenue Communication Advancement, the National Association of Computerized Tax Processors and the American Coalition for Taxpayer Rights. More than 60 groups from the private sector have signed on.

During the past tax season, increased scams leveraged the Fuel Tax Credit, household employment taxes and the Sick and Family Leave Credit. Other schemes continue circulating on social media.

CASST will work to put in place new protections by filing season 2025 and improve the ability to identify and stop scams, including improving EFIN and PTIN validation and new steps to combat ghost preparers.

Source: Accounting Today