Bookmark and Share [ [link removed] ]

a { color:#0073AF !important;} a:hover { color:#004673 !important;}
IRS.gov Banner
IRS Newswire November 30, 2023

News Essentials

What's Hot [ [link removed] ]

News Releases [ [link removed] ]

IRS - The Basics [ [link removed] ]

IRS Guidance [ [link removed] ]

Media Contacts [ [link removed] ]

Facts & Figures [ [link removed] ]

Around The Nation [ [link removed] ]

e-News Subscriptions [ [link removed] ]

________________________________________________________________________

The Newsroom Topics

Multimedia Center [ [link removed] ]

Noticias en Espa?ol [ [link removed] ]

Radio PSAs [ [link removed] ]

Tax Scams [ [link removed] ]

The Tax Gap [ [link removed] ]

Fact Sheets [ [link removed] ]

IRS Tax Tips [ [link removed] ]

Armed Forces [ [link removed] ]

Latest News Home [ [link removed] ]

________________________________________________________________________

IRS Resources

Contact My Local Office [ [link removed] ]

Filing Options [ [link removed] ]

Forms & Instructions [ [link removed] ]

Frequently Asked Questions [ [link removed] ]

News [ [link removed] ]

Taxpayer Advocate [ [link removed] ]

Where to File [ [link removed] ]

IRS Social Media [ [link removed] ]

________________________________________________________________________


*Issue Number:?* ??IR-2023-227

*Inside This Issue*
________________________________________________________________________

*National Tax Security Awareness Week, Day 4: Summit partners urge businesses to take steps to prevent data loss, fraud*

WASHINGTON ? As part of National Tax Security Awareness Week, the Internal Revenue Service and the Security Summit [ [link removed] ] partners today urged businesses to remain vigilant against cyberattacks aimed at stealing their customer's personal information and other business data that can help identity thieves.

The IRS continues to see instances where small businesses and others face a variety of identity theft related schemes that try to obtain information that can be used to file fake business tax returns. For example, phishing schemes continue to target businesses as well as tax professionals and individual taxpayers. And businesses continue to be targets of Form W-2 scams where identity thieves try to trick company leaders into sharing sensitive data.

"Businesses of all shapes and sizes, including tax professionals, continue to be a ripe target for identity thieves trying to obtain sensitive tax and financial data,? said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. ?Businesses and their employees need to remain careful on multiple fronts to protect their sensitive systems and data. Identity thieves continue to use an array of tactics to try getting at a treasure trove of information that can be used in many ways, including filing tax returns.?

During National Tax Security Awareness Week [ [link removed] ], now in its eighth year, the Security Summit [ [link removed] ] partnership of the IRS, state tax agencies and the nation?s tax community work to raise awareness among taxpayers, tax professionals and the business community about the importance of safeguarding information to protect against identity theft. The Security Summit formed in 2015 to combat tax-related identity theft through better public-private sector coordination as well as strengthening internal protections in the tax community and raising public awareness about security threats.

With the tax season fast approaching, the Security Summit partners today reminded the business community and others to take extra steps to protect their financial and tax information. As the IRS and the Summit partners have strengthened their internal defenses in recent years to protect against fraud, identity thieves have increasingly focused on businesses and tax professionals as a way to obtain sensitive taxpayer information in hopes of evading systemic defenses by the IRS and the Summit partners in the tax community.

The Summit partners strongly urge businesses to employ robust information technology tools and services to rigorously safeguard their business and trade information as well as protect data directly connected to their customers, employees and business partners.

Cyber criminals target businesses of all sizes. Knowing some cybersecurity basics and putting them in practice will help business owners protect their business and reduce the risk of a cyber-attack. Criminals can target a business's credit card or payment information, business identity information or employee identity information. This information can also be used to file fraudulent business and personal tax returns.

Businesses are encouraged to follow best practices from the Federal Trade Commission, including:


* Set security software to update automatically.
* Back up important files.
* Require strong passwords for all devices.
* Encrypt devices.
* Use multi-factor authentication.

More information is available at FTC's Cybersecurity for Small Businesses [ [link removed] ].

Businesses should also remain vigilant to tax-related ?phishing? email scams, which can often be cleverly written to fool employees into opening harmful embedded links or attachments. Businesses and consumers are encouraged to send IRS-related scams to [email protected].

All employers should remain vigilant regarding Form W-2 theft schemes. While tax scams evolve and change over time, in the most common versions a thief poses as a high-ranking company executive who emails payroll employees and asks for a list of employees and their W-2s, which contain sensitive tax and financial data. As these scams become more sophisticated, businesses may not be aware they?ve been the victim of a tax scam until fraudulent tax returns begin appearing with employees' names.

There are special reporting procedures for employers who experience the W-2 scam. They can be found at Identity Theft Central's [ [link removed] ] Business section.

*What businesses should do if they are identity theft victims*

The IRS has also published Form 14039-B, Business Identity Theft Affidavit [ [link removed] ], allowing businesses to proactively report possible identity theft to the IRS when, for example, the e-filed tax return is rejected.

Businesses should file the Form 14039-B if they receive a:


* Rejection notice for an electronically filed return because a return already is on file for that same period.
* Notice about a tax return that the entity didn't file.
* Notice about Forms W-2 filed with the Social Security Administration that the entity didn't file.
* Notice of a balance due that is not owed.

IRS Form 14039-B enables the IRS to respond to the business much faster than in the past, and work to resolve issues caused by the filing of a fraudulent tax return. However, businesses should not use Form 14039-B if they are the victims of a data breach with no tax-related impact. See Identity Theft Central's [ [link removed] ] Business section for more details.

In addition, the Security Summit partners urgently ask businesses to keep their EIN application information current. Changes of address or responsible party may be reported using IRS Form 8822-B [ [link removed] ]. And as a reminder, changes in the responsible party must be reported to the IRS within 60 days. Current information can help the IRS find a point of contact to resolve identity theft and other issues.

This is the fourth in a week-long series of tips raising awareness about tax information identity fraud. For more information and help on tax information theft prevention see IRS.gov/securitysummit [ [link removed] ].

?

Back to Top [ #Fifteenth ]

________________________________________________________________________

FaceBook Logo [ [link removed] ]??YouTube Logo [ [link removed] ] ?Instagram Logo [ [link removed] ]? Twitter Logo [ [link removed] ] ?LinkedIn Logo [ [link removed] ]

________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for subscribing to the IRS Newswire, an IRS e-mail service.

If you know someone who might want to subscribe to this mailing list, please forward this message to them so they can subscribe [ [link removed] ].

This message was distributed automatically from the mailing list IRS Newswire. Please Do Not Reply To This Message.



?

________________________________________________________________________

Update your subscriptions, modify your password or email address, or stop subscriptions at any time on your Subscriber Preferences Page [ [link removed] ]. You will need to use your email address to log in. If you have questions or problems with the subscription service, please contact subscriberhelp.govdelivery.com [ [link removed] ].

This service is provided to you at no charge by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) [ [link removed] ].


body .abe-column-block {min-height: 5px;} ________________________________________________________________________

This email was sent to [email protected] by: Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ? Internal Revenue Service ? 1111 Constitution Ave. N.W. ? Washington DC 20535 GovDelivery logo [ [link removed] ]
body .abe-column-block { min-height: 5px; } table.gd_combo_table img {margin-left:10px; margin-right:10px;} table.gd_combo_table div.govd_image_display img, table.gd_combo_table td.gd_combo_image_cell img {margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px;}