I must commend CPA Tony Nitti on his “Request for Urgent Business Relationship.” It’s hilarious…but horribly sad.
Why? TIGTA–the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration–came out with what is (for me) a scathing report on identity theft and phony tax refunds. Somehow, 655 tax refunds went to a single address in Kaunas, Lithuania. Don’t feel left out if you live in Orlando: 871 went to two separate addresses in that Florida city. There’s a preparer who is apparently responsible for 5,506 bad returns with a social security number and 1,590 with an ITIN (I’m hopeful that TIGTA forwarded information about that preparer to IRS criminal investigation) .
Yet I came up with a simple proposal on identity theft in September 2012 that would, if implemented, stop a lot of identity theft. (Yes, I forwarded my idea to the IRS.) Supposedly the IRS will have some new measures on identity theft for 2013 returns. We shall see….