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Enforcement of Tax Laws

Scammers pretend to call from a gas, electric, or water company saying your service is about to be interrupted. They want to scare you into believing a late bill must be paid immediately, often with a wire transfer or a reloadable card or gift card. Their timing is often carefully planned to create the greatest urgency — like just before the dinner rush in a restaurant. They tell you that something terrible is about to happen to get you to send a payment before you have a chance to check out their claims. If you own a small business or are part of a non-profit organization, you spend a lot of time and effort making sure the organization works well. But when scammers go after your organization, it can hurt your reputation and your bottom line. If you use consumer credit reports for a business purpose, you may be subject to the FTC’s Disposal Rule.

A letter that asks whether you filed a tax return could indicate that someone else has attempted to file using your information, and the IRS is suspicious. Scam callers may try to persuade their targets to send them immediate payment through a preloaded debit card or gift card or via a wire transfer—which can be hard to trace. Even if you discover you’ve been scammed, recovering your money is virtually impossible. IRS scammers try to scare people into providing sensitive information or money, sometimes threatening arrest, deportation, or other harm. They can seem innocent at first, but they’re playing on your emotions from the start. Before long, they’ll try to sucker you into giving up your personal information and money.

You’re asked to pay with gift cards, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency

Whether it’s a person or a prerecorded message on the other end, you’ll be told there’s an issue with your account or a payment you made. You may be asked for your login credentials Tax Scams Still Pose A Risk After You File Your Taxes Key Details And How To Protect Yourself to fix the problem or asked to make a new payment. Instead of giving out your info, hang up and call your financial institution on their publicly available number.

State ID Theft Resources – State information on what to do if you or your employees are victims of identity theft. Taxpayers who experience tax-related identity theft may wonder when they should file a Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit. Notify employees so they may take steps to protect themselves from identity theft.

Scams Targeting Tax Professionals

Terms and conditions apply; seeAccurate Calculations Guaranteefor details. You may be eligible for Maryland income tax credits as well as tax credits granted by another state. Follow the instructions provided by your state of legal residence for any possible credits allowed by that state. Taxpayers affected by the federal tax on Social Security and/or Railroad Retirement benefits can continue to exempt those benefits from state tax. Maryland tax law exempts from state tax only those Railroad Retirement benefits provided under the U.S. Enter on line 11 of Maryland Form 502 all Railroad Retirement benefits and/or Social Security benefits that were taxable on your federal return and included on line 1 of Maryland Form 502.

• Keep in mind that if you receive merchandise you didn’t order, you have a legal right to keep it for free.
• But living trusts are not for everyone, and the trust documents that work for one person might not work for another.
• To explain, spam is the electronic equivalent of the ‘junk mail’ that arrives on your doormat or in your postbox.
• If your spouse meets the criteria noted above, you can claim an exemption for your spouse in the Exemptions section of the Maryland return.
• Falling victim to tax identity theft could rob you of your refund or make the IRS think you owe money when you don’t.
• If a caller says you cannot pay at IRS.gov, you know it’s an impersonation.

Your contribution will reduce the amount of your state refund or increase the amount of additional state tax you owe. Please verify that you satisfy all of the eligibility requirements above before completing the required forms. Local Tax Rate Changes – There are no local tax rates increase for tax year 2021, however, two counties (St Mary’s and Washington’s) have decreased their local rate for calendar https://turbo-tax.org/ year 2022. Click here for a complete list of current city and local counties’ tax rate. If you are a nonresident, you must file Form 505 and Form 505NR. You and your spouse are in the military, do not live in Maryland and one or both have Maryland income. You are not a resident of Maryland but your civilian spouse is employed in Maryland and has resided within the state for more than six months.

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Make sure employees who work from home follow the same procedures for disposing of sensitive documents and old computers and portable storage devices. Require employees to notify you immediately if there is a potential security breach, such as a lost or stolen laptop. Watch for unexpectedly large amounts of data being transmitted from your system to an unknown user. If large amounts of information are being transmitted from your network, investigate to make sure the transmission is authorized.

Mortgage fraud happens when someone lies to influence a bank’s mortgage decision or if a distressed homeowner is the victim of a fraud. The FBI regularly coordinates with other law enforcement agencies, international partners, and industry to detect and disrupt money laundering. The FBI focuses its efforts on money laundering facilitation—targeting professional money launderers, key facilitators, gatekeepers, and complicit financial institutions, among others. These crimes are not violent, but they are not victimless. White-collar crimes can destroy a company, wipe out a person’s life savings, cost investors billions of dollars, and erode the public’s trust in institutions. Timing is based on an e-filed return with direct deposit to your Card Account. Fees apply when making cash payments through MoneyGram® or 7-11®.

Refund Fraud Related to Identity Theft

Our website also outlines other important steps that employees who are victims of UI fraud should take. The Department examines various taxpayer information in an effort to make sure that taxpayers are following Iowa’s tax laws and rules. The Department will work with you and will carefully consider all necessary information before making a decision. Procedures for tax returns, listed below, also apply if we question your failure to file a tax return. If you are selected for an Iowa tax audit, or examination, you should know how the process works and what your rights are at each stage. Our examination may result in a billing or, in some cases, a refund. If you file a joint return, report your total federal adjusted gross income on your Maryland return.

Thieves try to steal client data and tax preparers’ identities in an attempt to file fraudulent tax returns for refunds. According to IRS identity theft data, in the first five months of 2017, approximately 107,000 taxpayers were victims of tax identity theft. While that number is lower than 2016’s figures, tax return fraud remains a threat. No, you do not need to appeal decisions issued or protest benefits charged to your account on claims filed as a result of identity theft. We will not process appeals where the reason for the appeal is that the claim is fraudulent. It is possible you received a decision issued automatically on a claim that was closed due to fraudulent activity. IDT refund fraud occurs when an identity thief files a fraudulent tax return using a legitimate taxpayer’s identifying information and claims a refund.