Email scams

Let’s say you get an email from the IRS requesting your reply to the email with your social security number or other important information. Because it is from the IRS, you don’t want to ignore their request.  You comply and provide them with the information they have requested.

This is an email scam. The scammer created this legitimate looking email with official looking logos, and everything that the IRS would include in an email.

Phishing

Again, let’s say you get an email saying it is from the IRS. They ask you to log into your account and re-enter your payment information where you make your online installment payments. So, the page you usually go to in order to make your payment looks like the website you always go to and you follow the instructions given you from the email. You feel good you were able to comply with the request made by the IRS in a timely manner and you hit the “submit” button.

But do you know what really happened?

What happened is you were phished. The email you received looked like it was from the IRS, the link in the email led you to a page that looked like an IRS page, and you entered your financial information. A phishing email page looks legitimate, but it is not. These pages are “spoofed” pages, more or less duplicated from the real page. But a close look at the address bar will show that the address is not what the address would be for the legitimate page. Unfortunately, most people will not notice the address discrepancy unless they are aware of the difference.

The truth

The IRS is NEVER going to request personal information over the Internet. They are not going to send you an email that asks you to enter financial information. They are also not going to ask you for your social security number via email request. The Internet is wide-open and your personal information will never be put at risk by the IRS in such a way. If the IRS needs information from you, they will send you a letter asking for what they need and how you can provide that information to them. The IRS always corresponds via postal mail. It is your responsibility to provide them with the information they request either by mail or by calling them. All of this is done for the safety of your personal information.

If you are ever receive this type of email, you can contact the IRS at phishing@irs.gov and report the email. It is important the IRS knows when email scams or phishing emails pop up so they can work to shut them down.

Listed below are tips for individuals and businesses on preparing for a disaster.

1. Recordkeeping. Take advantage of paperless recordkeeping for financial and tax records. Many people receive bank statements and documents by e-mail. This method is an outstanding way to secure financial records. Important tax records such as W-2s, tax returns and other paper documents can be scanned onto an electronic format. You can copy them onto a ‘key’ or ‘jump drive’ periodically and then keep the electronic records in a safe place.
2. Document Valuables and Business Equipment. The IRS has disaster loss workbooks for individuals and businesses that can help you compile a room-by-room list of your belongings or business equipment. This will help you recall and prove the market value of items for insurance and casualty loss claims.
3. Check on Fiduciary Bonds. Employers who use payroll service providers should ask the provider if they have a fiduciary bond in place. The bond could protect the employer in the event of default by the payroll service provider.
4. Continuity of Operations Planning for Businesses. How quickly your company can get back to business after a disaster often depends on emergency planning done today. Start planning now to improve the likelihood that your company will survive and recover. Review your emergency plans annually. Just as your business changes over time, so do your preparedness needs. When you hire new employees or when there are changes in how your company functions, you should update your plans and inform your people.
5. Update Emergency Plans. Emergency plans should be reviewed annually. Individual taxpayers should make sure they are saving documents everybody should keep including such things as W-2s, home closing statements and insurance records. Make sure you have a means of receiving severe weather information; if you have a NOAA Weather Radio, put fresh batteries in it. Make sure you know what you should do if threatening weather approaches.
6. Count on the IRS. In the event of a disaster, the IRS stands ready to help. The IRS has valuable information you can request if your records are destroyed. If you have been impacted by a federally declared disaster, you may receive copies or transcripts of previously filed tax returns free of charge by submitting Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Form, or Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, clearly identified as a disaster related request.

For more information type “Preparing for a Disaster” in the search box on the IRS.gov homepage.

Links:

• Disaster Assistance and Emergency Relief for Individuals and Businesses
• IRS Publication 584, Casualty, Disaster and Theft Loss Workbook
• IRS Publication 584-B, Business Casualty, Disaster and Theft Loss Workbook

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service is offering a daily series of Tax Tips for the 2009 federal tax filing season that began this month.

Tax Tips offer concise, useful information on topics affecting millions of taxpayers.  More than 70 tips on federal taxes will be available with a new one for each business day until the April 15 tax-filing deadline.

Tips are available as easy-to-understand text as well as several audio files for podcast.

Sample text-based Tax Tip topics include:

    * Choosing a tax preparer

    * Where you can get free tax help

    * How e-file can make filing easier and getting you your refund faster

    * How to file for an extension or to amend your return

    * What tax records to keep

    * First-Time Homebuyer Credit

Taxpayers can receive new text-based Tax Tips via email when they are published by subscribing through the e-News Subscriptions page on IRS.gov.  When subscribing, the taxpayer will receive a confirmation message by e-mail that he or she must respond to confirm the subscription.   Other list serves available on IRS.gov include Guidewire, which distributes IRS guidance, and Newswire, which distributes IRS press releases.