IRS Expands Law Enforcement Assistance Program on Identity Theft to 50 States;  Victim Assistance and
Criminal Investigations Grow 

 

The IRS just announced a nationwide expansion of the program designed to help law enforcement obtain tax return data vital to their local efforts in investigating and prosecuting specific cases of identity theft.

 

More than 1,560 waiver requests have been received since the Law Enforcement Assistance Program’s inception from over 100 state and local law enforcement agencies in the nine states participating in the 

pilot. The expansion covers all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and will be effective Friday, March 29, 2013.

 

“The results of the pilot illustrate that this works as an innovative tool for law enforcement to help pursue tough 

identity theft situations,” said IRS Acting Commissioner Steven T. Miller. “This program is an effective way for law enforcement to work with the IRS to pursue identity thieves and protect taxpayers. Expanding the program and making it permanent on a nationwide basis makes sense for victims as well as law enforcement and tax administration.”

 

The IRS also announced today continued progress on several areas involving identity theft, including resolution of more victim cases and continued emphasis on criminal investigations.

 

Since the start of 2013, the IRS has worked with victims to resolve and close more than 200,000 cases. This is in addition to the expanded Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN) pilot, an initiative to protect victims with previously confirmed cases of identity theft by creating an additional layer of security on these accounts.

 

The IRS has issued more than 770,000 IP PINs to identity theft victims at the start of this tax filing season. Click here for full article

For more information, please refer to the IRS/ITRC Fact Sheet 143

Taxpayers looking for additional information can also consult theTaxpayer Guide to Identity Theft or the IRS Identity Theft Protectionpage on the IRS website.