It’s almost here! Yes, the dreaded tax day is nearly here. And just in time, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a new report claiming the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is using outdated software on it systems, exposing taxpayer information to hackers.
In a response to that, IRS Commissioner, John Koskinen said the IRS systems withstand more than 1 million malicious attempts to access them each day. The implication that they are more secure than the report would lead us to believe. Whatever the case, it is a good time to brush up on avoiding common IRS scams.
In a Senate finance committee meeting earlier this week, IRS Commissioner, John Koskinen offered some good tips. He said, “We (the IRS) never threaten people, we never tell you you’re going to jail the next day, and we never tell you to make a payment to a bank account or a debit card. If you’re going to pay taxes, you pay them to the United States Treasury.” In fact, if the IRS is going to initiate communication with any taxpayer, the first notification will come via the U.S. Postal Service. If you receive a phone call or email claiming to be from the IRS, contact them via information found on the website. Do not reply to email or call a number provided on a voicemail message unless you initiated the correspondence with them and are completely sure it’s legitimate.
The GAO report warned that the IRS should to take additional steps to protect taxpayer data. However, Koskinen stated that the integrity of the agency’s financial systems is sound.
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