Law Enforcement Assistance Pilot Program on Identity Theft Activity Involving the IRS
As part of its comprehensive identity theft strategy, the IRS has implemented a new law enforcement assistance pilot program designed to aid law enforcement in obtaining tax return data vital to their local efforts in investigating and prosecuting specific cases of identity theft. This limited pilot program will work exclusively with law enforcement throughout the State of Florida.
Under the pilot program, state and local law enforcement officials with evidence of identity theft involving fraudulently filed federal tax returns will be able to have identity theft victims complete a special IRS disclosure form. Taxpayers must give their permission for the IRS to provide law enforcement with the returns submitted using their Social Security number. Law enforcement officials will need to contact the identity theft victims in order to request and secure the victims' consent for disclosure of the records. In certain instances, the IRS will assist law enforcement in locating taxpayers and soliciting their consent.
Law enforcement would then submit a disclosure authorization form, which the IRS created solely for use by victims of identity theft for this pilot program, to the Criminal Investigation (CI) Division of the IRS, along with a copy of the police report and the IRS Identity Theft Affidavit if available. It is important that identity theft victims still submit the original copy of the Identity Theft Affidavit to the IRS according to the instructions on the back of the form that fit their specific circumstances.
During this pilot program, the IRS will process the disclosure forms received and forward the documentation to the law enforcement officer who requested the documents. The documents will not be sent directly to the taxpayer. However, the IRS will continue to work directly with taxpayers to clean up their tax accounts as quickly as possible and the victims do not need a copy of the falsely filed documents to complete that process.
Law enforcement in Florida interested in working with the IRS during this pilot program should contact the IRS CI field offices in Tampa or Miami depending upon their location.
Following the pilot, the IRS will carefully assess the results and performance before deciding on how to proceed with the program.
The IRS comprehensive identity theft strategy comprises a dual effort, focusing both on fraud prevention and victim assistance. On the prevention side, this means implementing new processes for handling returns, new filters to detect fraud, new initiatives to partner with stakeholders and a continued commitment to investigate the criminals who perpetrate these crimes. As for victim assistance, the IRS is working to speed up case resolution, provide more training for our employees who assist victims of identity theft, and step up outreach to and education of taxpayers so they can prevent and resolve tax-related identity theft issues quickly.
Taxpayers looking for additional information can consult the Taxpayer Guide to Identity Theft or the IRS Identity Theft Protection page on the IRS website.
