The IRS and its Security Summit partners have announced a new framework to better protect taxpayers from identity theft and tax fraud. The updated approach is designed to improve information sharing and strengthen cooperation among the IRS, state tax agencies, tax software companies, tax professionals and other members of the tax community. Since its creation, the Security Summit has helped protect millions of taxpayers and prevent billions of dollars from being paid to fraudsters. However, the IRS noted that criminals are increasingly stealing tax and financial information from taxpayers, businesses and tax professionals to file fraudulent returns that appear legitimate and are harder to detect.
To address these growing threats, the new framework places a stronger focus on working with payroll providers because wage and withholding information has become a frequent target for cybercriminals. In addition, the Security Summit has created five work groups that will focus on identifying suspicious activity before returns are filed, spotting new fraud schemes, strengthening fraud prevention tools, improving fraud detection and reporting and responding more quickly to security incidents. IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Bisignano said the partnership continues to show the benefits of bringing together government and private-sector expertise to protect taxpayers. Moreover, IRS officials said the updated structure will help partners identify threats earlier and better safeguard taxpayer information and tax revenue. The Security Summit will also continue working with the Coalition Against Scam and Scheme Threats, which focuses on quickly assessing and responding to emerging fraud risks.
