Beware of Tax Scams!

The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email, phone, text message, or social media to request personal or financial information. 

The IRS will never:

• Call you to demand immediate payment using a specific or non-standard payment method such as a prepaid debit card, gift card, bitcoin, or wire transfer. The IRS will typically mail you a bill if you owe any taxes, and they accept standard payment methods such as a check.
• Send email or display pop-ups, advertisements, or other alerts on your computer demanding payment of taxes or offering to settle tax debt in exchange for a fee.
• Threaten to immediately bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.
• Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.
• Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone. If you wish to use a credit or debit card to pay your taxes, refer to this page from the IRS.

Examples of recent scams include:

• Fake IRS tax bills related to the Affordable Care Act. Generally, the scam involves a fraudulent version of CP2000 notices for tax year 2015. See more.
• Telephone scammers targeting students and parents during the back-to-school season and demanding payments for non-existent taxes, such as the “federal student tax.” See more.
• Phone calls where scammers leave urgent requests asking taxpayers to call back to settle their tax bill or to avoid being reported to authorities. In most cases, these calls use a robotic voice. Upon calling back, the caller will be connected to an offshore call center demanding a nonstandard payment such as an iTunes gift card.
• Emails from persons claiming that you've committed tax evasion and demanding payment to avoid them reporting this to the IRS (extortion emails). These emails usually demand payment in Bitcoin or similar; some emails will also claim that they've installed malware on your computer, or that they know other information about you as well.

For more information on tax scams, please see Tax Scams/Consumer Alerts. For more information on phishing, please see Suspicious e-Mails and Identity Theft.

(Content Credit: IRS)