Top 3 – Tax Season Scams
Top 3 – Tax Season Scams
The IRS, The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), the National Council on Aging (NCOA), and The Internal revenue Service have our back. They’ve partnered with local law enforcement agencies to bring to light the most onerous scams and to catch the bad guys. We have selected from their reported top scams: Our top 3.
- The dreaded Telephone Call from the IRS – Impersonating an IRS Agent: Usually scammers will try to intimidate you by threatening arrest, deportation, license revocation, liens, and other threats. Remember, please, the IRS always sends a “skinny letter,” as our local CPA likes to say. From the IRS’ website: “The IRS doesn’t initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information.”
- Preparer Fraud – there are some preparers that set-up shop each tax season just to scam folks: from stealing your identity to stealing your tax refund.
- Localized Scams – Beware of someone claiming to be from the Georgia Department of Revenue or a letter addressed from the Tax Assessors Office. The letter which contains public information is made to look official, offers the homeowner, for a fee, to arrange for a re-assessment of the property’s value — promising, of course, a lower tax burden.
The number of scams you are likely to run into is endless. A little common sense goes a long way as does the “smell test”- if it smells fishy it’s probably not a rose. If in doubt call us, we can usually call on multiple resources to help you determine if something you are being offered is legit.
When you get a minute try out our risk discovery tool – tell your friends about it….
https://windsorwealth.management/my-risk-o-meter/
Our portfolios are fully invested: we’ve added emerging market equities, REITs, munis and more dividend payers.
Carlos Dominguez – Portfolio Manager, RJFS
Sources:
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-scams-consumer-alerts
https://www.ncoa.org/economic-security/money-management/scams-security/top-10-scams-targeting-seniors/, http://www.nasaa.org/5232/nasaa-identifies-top-10-investor-traps/, https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/irs-wraps-up-the-dirty-dozen-list-of-tax-scams-for-2016, * http://www.nasaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Promissory-Notes-Brochure.pd
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