2023 ‘tax’ season is over: IRS won’t knock on your door or call you to pay, beware of scammers

The IRS may call you, send you a text or Email Or come to your home to collect a potential tax debt.

The IRS never threatens to arrest someone, revoke their driver’s license, or deport them from the United States. No money is given.

“Email and text scams haven’t stopped and scammers often use tax season to trick people,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement.

“Because they’re eager to get information about their refund or other tax matter, fraudsters often impersonate the IRS, state tax agency or other agents in the tax department,” he explained.

“Keep in mind that fraudsters often modify legitimate IRS letters and forms,” ​​the agency says.

The IRS sends letters or notices when a person has outstanding balances, a refund, clarification of a tax return, needs to verify a person’s identity, needs more information about the person, changes in income, or needs to report. Delay in processing returns.

“We provide you with our contact phone number in the upper right-hand corner of the letter or notice. Generally, you should only contact us if you disagree with the information, if we request additional information, or if you owe money.” The company explains on its website.

The IRS will call or visit a person’s home or business only in unusual circumstances. For example, if the person has a tax debt for a long time or if he faces an audit or criminal investigation.

Don’t answer that, ask the Income Tax department. Also do not open any attached files. “They may contain some malicious code that could infect your computer or mobile phone,” the IRS says.

If you click on a link in a suspicious email and provide personal information, the IRS prompts you to go to its identity theft page. Here You can find that page in Spanish. It also recommends sending that email to [email protected].

“If the person calling you is an IRS employee and has a legal need to contact you, please call them back. Online resources appropriate,” says the IRS.

“If the person is not an IRS employee and does not have a reasonable need to contact you, report the incident to the appropriate law enforcement agencies, regardless of whether or not you are the victim of fraud,” it added.

Try to gather the following information so you can provide it to the authorities: the phone number used to call you, the phone number you were asked to call back, the name of the accused employee, the date of the call, and a brief description of what they said to you during it.

If you receive a text message, follow the instructions above and send the following to the IRS. The agency asks that you “leave a text message to 202-552-1226. If possible, in a separate text, send us the reference number at 202-552-1226.”