February 6, 2017

These third parties gained sufficient information from an outside source before trying to access the IRS site, which allowed them to clear a multi-step authentication process, including several personal verification questions that typically are only known by the taxpayer. The matter is under review by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration as well as the IRS’ Criminal Investigation unit, and the “Get Transcript” application has been shut down temporarily. The IRS will provide free credit monitoring services for the approximately 100,000 taxpayers whose accounts were accessed. In total, the IRS has identified 200,000 total attempts to access data and will be notifying all of these taxpayers about the incident.

As always, the IRS takes the security of taxpayer data extremely seriously, and we are working aggressively to protect affected taxpayers and continue to strengthen our protocols.

Additional information

The IRS announced today it will be notifying taxpayers after third parties gained unauthorized access to information on about 100,000 accounts through the “Get Transcript” online application.

The IRS determined late last week that unusual activity had taken place on the application, which indicates that unauthorized third parties had access to some accounts on the transcript application. Following an initial review, it appears that access was gained to more than 100,000 accounts through the Get Transcript application.

In this sophisticated effort, third parties succeeded in clearing a multi-step authentication process that required prior personal knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security information, date of birth, tax filing status and street address before accessing IRS systems. The multi-layer process also requires an additional step, where applicants

must correctly answer several personal identity verification questions that typically are only known by the taxpayer.

The IRS temporarily shut down the Get Transcript application last week after an initial assessment identified questionable attempts were detected on the system in mid-May. The online application will remain disabled until the IRS makes modifications and further strengthens security for it.

The matter is under continuing review by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and IRS offices, including Criminal Investigation.

The IRS notes this issue does not involve its main computer system that handles tax filing submission; that system remains secure.

On the Get Transcript application, a further review by the IRS identified that these attempts were quite complex in nature and appear to have started in February and ran through mid-May. In all, about 200,000 attempts were made from questionable email domains, with more than 100,000 of those attempts successfully clearing authentication hurdles. During this filing season, taxpayers successfully and safely downloaded a total of approximately 23 million transcripts.

In addition, to disabling the Get Transcript application, the IRS has taken a number of immediate steps to protect taxpayers, including:

• Sending a letter to all of the approximately 200,000 taxpayers whose accounts had attempted unauthorized accesses, notifying them that third parties appear to have had access to taxpayer Social Security numbers and additional personal financial information from a non-IRS source before attempting to access the IRS transcript application.

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  Although half of this group did not actually have their transcript account accessed because the third parties failed the authentication tests, the IRS is still taking an additional protective step to alert taxpayers. That’s because malicious actors acquired sensitive financial information from a source outside the IRS about these households that led to the attempts to access the transcript application.

• Offering free credit monitoring for the approximately 100,000 taxpayers whose Get Transcript accounts were accessed to ensure this information isn’t being used through other financial avenues. Taxpayers will receive specific instructions so they can sign up for the credit monitoring. The IRS emphasizes these outreach letters will not request any personal identification information from taxpayers. In addition, the IRS is marking the underlying taxpayer accounts on our core processing system to flag for potential identity theft to protect taxpayers going forward — both right now and in 2016.

These letters will be mailed out starting later this week and will include additional details for taxpayers about the credit monitoring and other steps. At this time, no action is needed by taxpayers outside these affected groups.

The IRS is continuing to conduct further reviews on those instances where the transcript application was accessed, including how many

of these households filed taxes in 2015. It’s possible that some of these transcript accesses were made with an eye toward using them for identity theft for next year’s tax season.

The IRS emphasizes this incident involves one application involving transcripts — it does not involve other IRS systems, such as our core taxpayer accounts or other applications, such as Where’s My Refund.

The IRS will be working aggressively to protect affected taxpayers and strengthen our protocols even further going forward.

What to do if You Get a Notice from the IRS

Each year the IRS mails millions of notices. Here’s what you should do if you receive a notice from the IRS:

1. Don’t ignore it. You can respond to most IRS notices quickly and easily. And it’s important that you reply promptly.

2. IRS notices usually deal with a specific issue about your tax return

or tax account. For example, it may say the IRS has corrected an error on your tax return. Or it may ask you for more information.

3. Read it carefully and follow the instructions about what you need to do.

4. If it says that the IRS corrected your tax return, review the information in the notice and compare it to your tax return.

If you agree, you don’t need to reply unless a payment is due.

If you don’t agree, it’s important that you respond to the IRS. Write a letter that explains why you don’t agree. Make sure to include information and any documents you want the IRS to consider. Include the bottom tear-off portion of the notice with your letter. Mail your reply to the IRS at the address shown in the lower left part of the notice. Allow at least 30 days for a response from the IRS.

5. You can handle most notices

without calling or visiting the IRS. If you do have questions, call the phone number

in the upper right corner of the notice. Make sure you have a copy of your tax return and the notice with you when you call.

6. Keep copies of any notices you get from the IRS.

7. Don’t fall for phone and phishing email scams that use the IRS as a lure. The IRS first contacts people about unpaid taxes by mail – not by phone. The IRS does not contact taxpayers by email, text or social media about their tax return or tax account.

With the federal government shutting down at midnight on Sept. 30, the Tax Court announced that it is closing during the shutdown. Unlike the other federal courts, which will remain open for at least

10 days, the Tax Court stopped accepting petitions, motions, and other papers, and electronic filings at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 1. The court also said it

will serve no documents itself, starting Oct. 1. According to the notice, any updates or resumption in operations will be announced on the court’s website.

During the time that the court is closed, for due dates that are established by the Tax Court, deadlines will be extended for the number of days court operations have been suspended, up

to a maximum of five days from the date the court resumes operating. Also, extended deadlines that fall on Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays will be extended to the next business day.

The Tax

Court explained that it cannot extend due dates set by statute, such as the Sec. 6213(a) deadline to file a tax court petition to redetermine a deficiency within 90 days of receiving the deficiency notice and the 30-day deadline for filing a petition challenging a lien or levy under Sec. 6330(d)(1). During the shutdown, taxpayers will still be required to meet the regular deadlines for these actions.

Because the court will not take electronic filings and no hand deliveries will be accepted at the courthouse during the shutdown, taxpayers will have to send documents by U.S. mail (which is still operating during the shutdown) or by approved private express delivery services. Taxpayers can rely on the Sec. 7502(a) rule that a timely mailed petition is treated as timely filed, as of the date of the U.S. postal service postmark on the envelope in which the petition was mailed. Under Sec. 7502(f), petitions sent using designated private delivery services get the benefit of this rule.

Tax refunds

In other government shutdown news, the IRS announced on its website on Tuesday that, “Tax refunds will not be issued until normal government operations resume.” This marked a change from its shutdown contingency plan, under which 859 employees in its Information Technology Services Enterprise Operations were excepted from the general shutdown furlough to ensure “refunds continue to process” and which said that “Without this support, . . . refunds to America’s taxpayers would not occur.”