October 11, 2017

IRS relayed information about the Equifax data breach affecting roughly 143 million taxpayers. According to IRS, the data breach exposed names, SSNs and mailing addresses; however, this information would likely not be very helpful when attempting to file a successful return since the Security Summit has 37 data point filters and new processes in place that would likely prevent the processing of a return without additional filing information. IRS clarified that at the time of the NPL meeting, affected or compromised taxpayers should only contact IRS through Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit, if they KNOW for a fact that someone is attempting to use their data for refund fraud and not if their information was included in the data obtained by the hackers during the breach. IRS will release updates on the breach when more information is available.

NAEA

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