San Jose Tax Attorneys – You should know that the IRS does not initiate contact with any taxpayer via e-mail or social media to request personal or financial information. In order to avoid tax-season scammers, take note of the following:

• The IRS never asks for detailed personal and financial information like PINs, passwords, or similar secret access information for credit cards, banks, or other financial accounts.
• The address of the official IRS website is www.irs.gov. Do not be misled by sites claiming to be the IRS but ending in .com, .net, .org or anything other than .gov. If you discover a website that claims to be the IRS but you suspect it is bogus, do not provide any personal information on the site.
• If you receive a phone call, fax, or letter in the mail from an individual claiming to be from the IRS, you should immediately contact this office before providing any information. You should do this whether you suspect the contact is legitimate or not. You can also contact the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 to determine if the IRS has a legitimate need to contact you.
• You can help the IRS and other law enforcement agencies shut down these schemes. Visit the IRS.gov website for Reporting Phishing: to get details on how to report scams and helpful resources if you are the victim of a scam. You can report any bogus e-mails by forwarding a suspicious email to phishing@irs.gov.

Identity Theft is a Growing Problem – When a taxpayer’s ID has been stolen, the IRS will issue the individual a special number with which to file a return. The victim gets a new one each year for three years to provide time for the taxpayer to correct the ID theft damage. In 2012, the IRS issued 250,000 of these special numbers and for the 2013 filing season it issued 770,000—an increase of more than 300%. That is why it is so important for you to protect yourself from the nightmare of ID theft.

To learn more about how to protect yourself from ID theft, visit the following IRS webpages: Identity Protection Tips and Identity Protection Home Page.