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We are always looking forward to providing you with the latest news and information on your taxes and other related topics. The irony of this newsletter’s first piece of news (which basically states there is no news!) has not escaped our attention, but it is still worth mentioning.
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The IRS has not yet announced a date that it will begin accepting individual tax returns for the 2018 tax filing season.
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The IRS continues to closely monitor potential legislation that could affect the 2018 tax season, including a number of “extender” tax provisions that expired at the end of 2016 that could potentially be renewed for tax year 2017 by Congress.
The IRS anticipates it will not be at a point to announce a filing season start date until later in the calendar year and will continue to work closely with the nation’s tax professionals and software community as preparations continue for the 2018 tax filing season.
Speculation on the Internet that the IRS will begin accepting tax returns on Jan. 22 or after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday in January is inaccurate and misleading; no such date has been set.
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- In addition, the IRS cautions taxpayers from relying on misleading refund charts on the internet that project tax refund dates. Any speculation about refund dates in 2018 is premature. These refund charts can overlook many different factors affecting the timing of tax refunds, ranging from the accuracy of information on the return to whether a taxpayer files electronically. The IRS and state revenue departments have increased their security protocols against identity theft and refund fraud, which also can affect the timing of federal and state refunds.
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Due to law changes first affecting last year’s returns, the IRS cannot issue refunds for tax returns claiming the EITC or ACTC before mid-February. This law requires the IRS to hold the entire refund, even the portion not associated with the EITC or ACTC. However, there is no need to wait to file such returns since the IRS will process them to the point of refund and then begin refund release when permitted by law.
Tax Day for 2018 takes place on April 17, 2018, so you’ll have a few extra days to file. When April 15 falls on a Friday, tax returns are due the following Monday, and when April 15 falls on a Saturday or Sunday, tax returns are due the following Tuesday, due to the observance of Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C.
We should also remind you that, as of 2017, the federal law moved up the W-2 filing deadline for employers and small businesses to January 31.
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The new deadline also applies to certain Forms 1099. Those reporting non- employee compensation such as payments to independent contractors submitted to the IRS are due Jan. 31. Employers have long faced a Jan. 31 deadline in providing copies of these forms to their employees. That date won’t change.
Employers normally had until the end of February, if filing on paper, or the end of March, if filing electronically, to send in copies of these forms. The new Jan. 31 deadline will help the IRS to spot errors on returns filed by taxpayers. Having these W-2s and 1099s sooner will make it easier for the IRS to verify legitimate tax returns and get refunds to taxpayers eligible to receive them. The changes will allow the IRS to send some tax refunds faster.
Since we’ve mentioned the W-2 Forms, we should also warn you against a new scam targeting employers and payroll officials.
The IRS, state tax agencies and private-sector tax groups warn the nation’s business, payroll and human resource communities about a growing W-2 email scam that threatens sensitive tax information held by employers. |
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These emails may start with a simple, “Hey, you in today?” and, by the end of the exchange, all of an organization’s Forms W-2 for their employees may be in the hands of cybercriminals. This puts workers at risk for tax-related identity theft.
The W-2 scam has emerged as one of the most dangerous and successful phishing attacks as hundreds of employers and tens of thousands of employees fell victim to the scheme in the past year. This scam is such a threat to taxpayers that a special IRS reporting process has been established. Because of the W-2 scam’s threat to tax administration for both federal and state governments, a special reporting process has been established to quickly alert the IRS and state tax agencies. Detailed reporting steps may be found at Form W-2/SSN Data Theft: Information for Businesses and Payroll Service Providers.
Another new email scam is targeting Hotmail users and is being used to steal personal and financial information.
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The phishing email subject line reads: “Internal Revenue Service Email No. XXXX | We’re processing your request soon | TXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX”. The email leads taxpayers to sign in to a fake Microsoft page and then asks for personal and financial information.
The IRS has received over 900 complaints about this new phishing scheme that seems to exclusively target Hotmail users. The suspect websites associated with this scam have been shut down, but taxpayers should be on the lookout for similar schemes.
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| Tax professionals and their clients are also warned against a fake insurance tax form scam that is being used to access annuity and life insurance accounts. Cybercriminals currently are combining several tactics to create a complex scheme through which both tax professionals and taxpayers have been victimized. |
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There may be variations but here’s how one scam works: the cybercriminal, impersonating a legitimate cloud-based storage provider, entices a tax professional with a phishing email. The tax professional, thinking they are interacting with the legitimate cloud-based storage provider, provides their email credentials including username and password.
With access to the tax professional’s account, the cybercriminal steals client email addresses and then impersonates the tax professional and sends emails to their clients, attaching a fake IRS insurance form and requesting that the form be completed and returned. The cybercriminal receives replies by fax and/or by an email very similar to the tax professional’s email, using a different email service provider or a slight variation to the tax pro’s address.
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The cybercriminal, using data from the completed form, impersonates the client and contacts the individual’s insurance company attempting to obtain a loan or make a withdrawal from those accounts.
All of you should be alert and very cautious with your personal data. If you receive any unsolicited email claiming to be from the IRS, forward it to phishing@irs.gov and then delete it. It is important to keep in mind the IRS generally does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information. For more information, visit the Tax Scams and Consumer Alerts page on IRS.gov.
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And, of course, you should always keep up with our newsletters!
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