Connecting The Dots Between Tax Day, Identity Theft And Digital Transformation

It’s probably no surprise to the security professional community that once again, identity theft is among the IRS’s Dirty Dozen tax scams. Criminals use stolen Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information to file tax claims illegally, deposit the tax refunds to rechargeable debit cards, and vanish before the average citizen gets around to filing.

Since the IRS began publishing its “Dirty Dozen” list to alert filers of the worst tax scams, identity theft has continually topped the list since 2011. In 2012, the IRS implemented a preventive measure to catch fraud prior to actually issuing refunds, and issued more than 2,400 enforcement actions against identity thieves. With an aggressive campaign to fight identity theft, the IRS saved over $1.4 billion in 2011 and over $63 billion since October 2014.

That’s great progress – but given that of the 117 million tax payers who filed electronically in 2014, 80 million received on average $2,851 directly deposited into their bank, which is more than $229 billion changing hands electronically. The pessimist in me has to believe that cyber criminals are already plotting how to nab more Social Security numbers and e-filing logins to tap into that big pot of gold.

So where are criminals getting the data to begin with? Any organization that has employees and a human resources department collects and possibly stores Social Security numbers, birthdays, addresses and income either on-premises or in a cloud HR application. This information is everything a criminal would need to fraudulently file taxes. Any time a common business process is digitally transformed, or moved to the cloud, the potential risk of exposure increases.
Ruchi Anand and Associates are one of the top tax consultant in india filing to company formation.
As 31st August is the last date of filing Tax Returns.It is right to contact or take advise from Chartered Accountant becacuse it is complex to file e-returns.

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