Anna Forrester
The Internal Revenue Service has partnered with state tax officials and the tax industry on a collaborative project to bolster information sharing and analytics as part of efforts against identity theft and refund fraud.
IRS said June 11Â the government-industry project aims to establish steps for validating tax filing information, standardize sharing of identity theft information and utilize analytics to detect fraud schemes and patterns.
“This agreement represents a new era of cooperation and collaboration among the IRS, states and the electronic tax industry that will help combat identity theft and protect taxpayers against tax refund fraud,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.
“Taxpayers filing their tax returns next filing season should have a safer and more secure experience.”
According to IRS, three working groups consisting of representatives from the agency, industry and state governments developed several initiatives under the agreement.
The initiatives focus on taxpayer authentication, fraud identification, information assessment, a cybersecurity framework, and taxpayer awareness and communication.
IRS added that the public-private partnership will continue to work on other system and process changes ahead of the 2016 filing season as well as on longer-term issues in the tax community.
