MIAMI – Without a hitch, Ed and Kelley Brill of Miami Shores, Fla., had filed joint income-tax returns from the same home address for 14 years.

But this year, after obtaining an extension, the couple, who have three school-age children, were shocked to learn that the Internal Revenue Service had rejected their electronically filed return. It turned out that a thief had stolen Kelley’s identity, Social Security number and employer’s name, then filed a falsified refund claim — beating the Brills to the punch.

Now, the couple — who still have no idea how they were victimized — must wait six to 12 months to get their $7,918 refund. Like hundreds of thousands of other Americans, the Brills are enduring a frustrating triple whammy: ID theft, tax fraud and IRS red tape.

“The taxpayer who was ripped off and did nothing wrong has to prove himself to the IRS,” said Ed Brill, 50, a mortgage banker whose wife is a schoolteacher.

They learned from an IRS representative in November that Kelley’s ID was stolen and used for the fraudulent tax refund, but were told little else.

“The IRS never bothered verifying anything filed by the crook who committed the crime,” said Brill. “I want to be afforded the same courtesy and efficiency that the crook was afforded by the IRS.”

Advertisement

The issues of identity theft and tax fraud in the electronic age have forced the IRS to come up with smarter ways to detect phony refund claims, match employee-employer wage statements and handle victims’ refund problems.

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman has focused not only on the identity-theft problem, but also on potential solutions such as “real-time” matching of W-2 income statements before tax refunds are issued.

Here’s the crux of the challenge: Scammers are exploiting a weakness in the IRS electronic filing system, because the agency does not match filers’ tax returns to W-2 income forms filed by employers until months after the filing season ends in April.

That means the IRS is not scrutinizing fabricated documents before it issues refunds to thieves.

But fixing the costly problem will require the IRS to modernize its processing system and set new rules mandating that employers file workers’ income statements earlier in the year.

Jose Marrero, a former IRS special agent in charge of the agency’s South Florida criminal division, said part of the issue is that Congress has pressured the IRS to process returns faster, so taxpayers can receive their refunds more quickly. But that has meant the agency has less time to review claims for accuracy.

Advertisement

“There is a real conflict that the IRS has to deal with,” said Marrero, a partner with MRW Consulting Group in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

According to a Government Accountability Office report, the number of identity theft-related fraud incidents on tax returns reached 248,000 last year, about five times the number in 2008.

Ed Brill pressed an IRS representative for immediate resolution of his case. Instead, he was told if he did not hear back from the IRS by phone or writing within 90 days, he should contact the agency again. That clock started ticking Nov. 7, when the IRS received the couple’s theft affidavit, he said.

“I just don’t want to be penalized for a hole in their system,” he said. “And their attitude was, ‘Get in line with the rest of them.’ “HOW TO REPORT FRAUDTo contact the IRS about a possible tax-fraud complaint, go to the agency’s website, IRS.gov, and click on “Where’s My Refund?”

The hotline to reach an IRS customer service representative is (800) 829-0582.

 


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.