The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently concluded its collaborative Summit offering recommendations and awareness of current criminal trends to tax professionals.
The annual Security Summit was initiated by the IRS in 2015 to assist tax and financial professionals avoid tax crime, fraud, and identity theft. The group is composed of private, public, state, and regulatory stakeholders who meet to develop updated intelligence to the industry.
This year, guidance provided throughout the summit was extensive. Just some of the tips for finance and tax professionals to avoid data theft and protect business assets include:
Create a Written Information Security Plan for your Tax and Accounting Practice (WISP):
Financial and tax professionals are required by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the FTC to take measures to safeguard client data. Part of those requirements is the development and implementation of a written data security plan. According to the IRS, physical, technical, and administrative infrastructure is necessary to protect your business and the security of the data of your clients.
Address the strength of your system:
Important aspects of system security were discussed by the summit, including:
- Software that offers firewalls, multi-factor authentication, and anti-virus scanning and alerts.
- Multi-factor authentication and use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
- Back-up capabilities or services and disk encryption
Create a data theft response plan:
Despite best efforts, data breaches occur. As a tax professional, you can reach out to an IRS Stakeholder Liaison for assistance and reporting.
New schemes:
Staying ahead of bad actors who are intent on stealing or ransoming your data is hard to do. For accountants and other tax pros, hackers often try to gain access to Preparer Tax IDs (PTIN), Electronic Filing ID and documentation (EFIN), and your Centralized Authorization File (CAF) number—a unique nine-digit number for those filing third-party authorizations with the IRS.
Now in wide use, artificial intelligence (AI) can become a workhorse for hackers and digital thieves. The IRS is seeing an uptick in fake IRS correspondence being sent to consumers noting collection concerns. Other scams currently in play include the Zero Tax program, where marketers promise to zero out past due tax obligations in order obtain social security numbers from unsuspecting taxpayers. Social media is rife with tax crime scams and consumers and tax professionals can expect to be solicited by phone call, snail mail, email, and text at any time.
Tax fraud is big business—try to make sure it does not disrupt yours.
Trusted tax representation on matters involving the IRS in Cleveland, Chicago, or abroad
If you are concerned about an employment tax dispute, an offshore tax question, or allegations of tax fraud, Robert J. Fedor, Esq., LLC can help. We deliver seasoned, strategic tax guidance. Call us at 440-250-9709 or contact us online.
