TIGTA

There's a small group of individuals who unfortunately, find themselves in a difficult situation. Hostages. We think about their safety—not their taxes. But what does the IRS do for them? 🎙️We spoke with @FederalNews about our recent report on it. federalnewsnetwork.com/agency-oversig…

St. Louis Tax Preparer Admits Stealing Client Funds Read the press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Missouri: justice.gov/usao-edmo/pr/s…

Impersonating the IRS is a relentless scam fraudsters use to steal your money through texts or phone calls that demand immediate payment of tax debts. Don't pay them. Outsmart them. Learn how to know if it's really the IRS: irs.gov/help/how-to-kn…

Texas woman sentenced to 5 yrs in federal prison for theft of government money & aggravated identity theft. @USPIS_CentralFL @TIGTA justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/t…

In our newest reports, we determined that the IRS accurately locked more than 99% of deceased taxpayers' accounts but issued a pandemic-related tax credit to 300,000 ineligible taxpayers. Here's a quick breakdown of what we found. content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USTRE…

We assessed the redesign of IRS hiring and onboarding programs. The IRS is currently under a hiring freeze (with limited exceptions), but the recommendations we make, if implemented, can help improve onboarding in the future. Read more: tigta.gov/sites/default/…

A #USPS worker thought stealing checks from the mail would be a good side hustle, the losses were estimated at $1.6 million. Our special agents stepped in and now he’s facing five and a half years in prison: bit.ly/4cjmPdO #USPSOIG #MailTheft @TIGTA @washington @dcpolice

Individual paper tax returns cost 43x more to process than an electronically filed one. Digitizing them would help save money & speed up processing. We found IRS contractors had scanned 517,000 paper filed forms - 5% of their planned goal. Read more: content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USTRE…

Our latest report looked at IRS efforts to offer relief to taxpayers who are, or were, held captive. These tax relief efforts include deferring collection actions & abating any penalties assessed while the taxpayer is held captive. Read the full report: oversight.gov/reports/tax-re…

ID Theft Awareness Week: Protect yourself The IRS offers a six-digit number known as an Identity Protection Personal Identification Number (IP PIN). It's a second layer of defense if someone steals your SSN to file a tax return. Learn how to get one: irs.gov/identity-theft…

ID Theft Awareness Week: Report highlight Sensitive information can be stolen/accessed many ways (data breaches, fake websites, etc.). In 2024, we found sensitive information was stored in open and unsecured bins at IRS offices. Our recommended fixes ⬇️ oversight.gov/sites/default/…

Did you know thieves steal SSNs to get a job (employment-related ID theft)? It can burden innocent taxpayers if they're taxed on the income. In 2011, we found that IRS didn't notify those it identified as victims of this theft. They now issue this notice: irs.gov/individuals/un…

Tax filing season is a critical time for the IRS because it's when most individuals file their tax returns and contact the IRS if they have questions. Read our memorandum summarizing our concerns about the IRS’s readiness for the 2026 Filing Season. oversight.gov/reports/other/…

🔎 ID Theft Awareness Week: Investigative Highlight 🔎 Last month, a joint investigation resulted in a conviction. In this case, a man used the stolen identities of more than 1,000 victims to steal more than $7.6M in pandemic relief money. Read more: justice.gov/usao-co/pr/nig…

In Feb. 2022, the IRS suspended certain collection notices to help taxpayers during the pandemic. However, Failure to Pay penalties accrued. In Dec. 2023, the IRS said it would waive these penalties for eligible taxpayers. Here's what we found: tigta.gov/sites/default/…

It's ID Theft Awareness Week. And it coincides with the first day of tax filing season. Tax refunds are an attractive target for fraudsters—who steal people's identities to file fake tax returns to claim large ones. Learn how to protect yours: consumer.ftc.gov/features/ident…

Little Rock woman sentenced to two years in federal prison for COVID relief fraud. justice.gov/usao-edar/pr/l… @FBILittleRock @FBI @TIGTA @SBAgov @FDIC_OIG

Illinois Woman Pleads Guilty to COVID-19 Fraud @IRS_CI @TIGTA justice.gov/usao-nv/pr/ill…

🎁Which newsletter did our subscribers unwrap the most?🎁 An alert we sent in January about scammers preying on IRS's announcement about sending payments to eligible people who didn't claim a pandemic-related credit. Sign up for alerts, reports, & more: public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USTRE…

$759M in financial benefits in 6 months. That's what we recovered, protected, & identified through audits, investigations, and inspections of IRS programs & operations. That's $4.2M a day. Find out how we did it in our latest report to Congress: tigta.gov/sites/default/…