Properly Safeguard Your Private Information
Just a quick reminder to always safeguard your private information. Identity thieves love tax season and tax related identity theft cases is a growing problem.
The IRS recently reported identity theft affected 1.2 million taxpayers in the calendar year 2012 and an additional 1.6 million were affected through June 29, 2013, an increase of approximately 33%. In most cases the IRS was able to determine the proper owner of the Social Security Number, however, taxpayers will face delays as it takes the IRS an average of 312 days to resolve tax related identity theft issues, which becomes an even larger issue for the taxpayer if a refund is due!
Some simple ways to protect yourself include avoiding shared or public computers, avoid sending anything with sensitive information via unsecure email and beating the identity thieves to the filing punch by filing as early as possible.
Thanks to David Enquist in our Moses Lake office for working up this post.
Paul Neiffer, CPA
Paul Neiffer is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers and agribusiness processors. Paul is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Walla Walla, Washington, as well as a regular speaker at national conferences and contributor at agweb.com. Raised on a farm in central Washington, he has been immersed in the ag industry his entire life, including the last 30 years professionally. Paul and his wife purchase an 180 acre ranch in 2016 and enjoy keeping it full of animals.
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