Victims of tax-refund identity theft have a nightmare on their hands — a long-term nightmare. A government audit found that it takes an average of 278 days for the IRS to resolve ID theft complaints and issue tax refunds. And that’s an improvement over the 312 days it took the last time an audit was performed.
Perhaps more maddening, auditors from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that ID theft cases are shuttled around to an average of seven different case workers. And during 254 of the 278 days that taxpayers wait for their refunds, nothing happens to their cases. That’s down from 277 days of “inactivity,” the auditors found.
Tax-related ID theft is a fast-growing crime. The IRS says it has stopped 19 million suspicious returns and protected more than $63 billion in fraudulent refunds; several states are also scrambling to deal with the issue.
“Refund fraud adversely affects the ability of innocent taxpayers to file their tax returns and timely receive their tax refunds, often imposing significant financial hardship,” said J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. “While the IRS is making some progress in assisting victims of identity theft, those who have been affected by this devastating crime deserve better.”
The audit covered ID theft complaints from fiscal year 2013.
When taxpayers finally do get their refunds, the ordeal isn’t always over. Of the sampling the auditors examined, 10 percent got the wrong refund or their case was otherwise incorrectly resolved. The auditors estimate that means 25,565 cases were resolved with errors.
Some cases drag on far longer than 278 days. Roughly five percent of the cases were stuck in extreme limbo, averaging 390 days — longer than one year — before resolution.
“(We) believe that further actions are needed to improve its tracking of these timeframes. Until this is corrected, the IRS will continue to provide an inaccurate account resolution timeframe to taxpayers due a refund,” the agency said.
Be the first to comment