After the Job expansion announcement last Tuesday, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel took a few moments to give the taxpayers of Greenville, and Washington County some advice.
He stopped short of calling them criminals, referring to them instead as bad actors.
But some of the scenarios he described could only be seen as theft by deception.
“Let's say you're eligible for a $2,000 earned income credit, there are bad actors out there who will tell taxpayers, ‘Look, I can get you your earned income credit, and here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you the money today, but I'm going to charge you $500.’ So now you're giving away a huge portion of what you're eligible for,” Werfel said. “When the reality is if you apply electronically and give us your direct deposit information, we'll get you that earned income credit in, on average, less than 20 days.”
Werfel said there are even worse case scenarios that they've seen, where the bad actors go in and they apply for the credit for you, but then they change the bank routing number after you leave and steal the entire credit.
“Then you go back and they're gone, we're ready to help if you're going to work with someone, work with a trusted tax professional,” Werfel said. “Look on our website, there are ways that we train you in terms of how to figure out whether someone has the right credentials.”
The site has an area called Enrolled Agents that will help you do your research before you fall victim to a scam.
“I think it starts with education, I have been traveling around the country doing interviews like this, in particular with local media, and doing public service announcements, talking about the risks of tax scams, telling people not to click on a link that you don't know about,” Werfel said. “That is a gateway for bad actors to get your information, if someone calls claiming to be the IRS, be very skeptical. We very rarely reach out to taxpayers, and when we do, we will send you a letter to your home or your business.”
Finally, Werfel wanted to tell people to not get tax advice from social media.
“Social media will put up these reels with these life hacks, like here's how you're going to get a lot of free money out of the IRS,” Werfel said. “There's no free money, what happens is it will hold up your return.”
Werfel gave this example, if you got a $300 refund last year, and now some video on social media is telling you you can get $30,000 in a refund, don't believe it because what happens is we're not going to pay it.
“We're going to stop your return, we're going to reach out to you by letter to figure out how to fix the situation, and that $300 refund you may be eligible for this year is going to be held up,” Werfel said. “And, by claiming a $30,000 refund you're not eligible for, you will now expose yourself to potential penalties, bottom line, do not get your tax advice from social media.”
