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IRS notified me of identity theft

Posted by $ jbrenner 8 years, 10 months ago to Government
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Apparently some moocher filed taxes with my SSN and was expecting a refund. Surprise, surprise. I owed money, so the feds suspected something was up. Of course, when they confirmed that my identity had been stolen, they would not provide any information to help me track down the thief. The investigation will take up to 6 months. Fortunately none of my other accounts had been hacked ... yet.

Apparently my agent hadn't gotten the word discussed in the link above.

This is precisely why we need to abolish the IRS.
SOURCE URL: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20150531/NEWS03/150539935&source=RSS


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  • Posted by $ blarman 8 years, 10 months ago
    We need to first abolish corporate income taxes. After that, abolish personal income taxes - preferably by repealing the Sixteenth Amendment. Then you can roll what is left of the IRS into Customs, since all they will be collecting are tariffs and import duties.
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    • Posted by freedomforall 8 years, 10 months ago
      Personal Income taxes first, that eliminates the need for the IRS bureaucracy. (Of course the banksters won't allow it because it provides them with their interest payments and add to their power to enslave. Again its the corrupt con-gress that is the problem, and the people who waste their votes on the GOP.)
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    • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 10 months ago
      Question? How much tax does any business pay?

      Answer: Zero.

      Like any other form of overhead it' gets added to the cost of doing business and passed on to the next level of buyer. All the way down to the end consumer who is the only taxpayer. the column heading is COG for Cost of Government. except maybe in the USA where play pretend is acceptable.
      COG follows all business related overhead and precedes adjusted profit or loss
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      • Posted by $ blarman 8 years, 10 months ago
        In certain cases, yes, the business can pass along 100% of the tax costs to the consumer. There are certain markets, however, that are very price-sensitive and competitive in which the company can not raise its prices sufficient to completely cover the cost of the tax and therefore must pay for the bill out of its own margins.

        Two other points for consideration:
        1. Higher prices lead to lower consumption. This is standard supply/demand 101. The sheer necessity of the business to raise its prices at the necessity of paying taxes prices some customers out of its market niche. Therefore the business suffers a decline accordingly.

        2. Consumers also lose out, both when they are effectively priced out of a market and because the higher costs of one product introduce additional opportunity costs.

        I object to corporate taxes for ALL of the above reasons.
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        • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 10 months ago
          No matter where they derive the funds it's still a cost of doing business. the funds are invariably obtained by cutting profit margins, cutting service, or cutting product quality OR raising prices. If the market won't allow an increase they go out of business. If it will allow it but the margin is too low they have to decide is all this work worth the bother or not. Same conclusion. The only other consideration is political. How many employees. If negligible they disappear or move to another country to regain a proper profit/loss ratio in the final column If a huge amount they black mail the liberals into a too big to fail and besides no more campaign contributions scenario.

          At the end of the day it's all overhead minus all sales receipts equals profit or loss.The cost of collecting the tax for the government and passing it to the treasury takes an administrative unit of employees ergo sum cost of government.

          In Australia they use the COG column to define the total cost of doing business. Here we use fairy tales claiming businesses pay taxes instead of facing the fact that businesses are an arm of the Treasury Department - paid or not.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 10 months ago
    That is only one reason for abolishing the IRS. Another one is that the IRS uses its power of intimidation and the threat of negative audits to cow most everyone. They are the closest thing to the Gestapo in the USA. True, they don't kill or torture, but they do threaten incarceration, which for the average citizen is scary enough.
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    • Posted by gcarl615 8 years, 10 months ago
      AHHH but they do threaten you with the implied point of a gun. You must comply or we will send jack boot thugs with many many guns to get your attention.
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      • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 10 months ago
        It can happen. I was audited twice in person by the IRS.I could write a novella about those experiences. The threat is there, even if not explicitly expressed.
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        • Posted by $ 8 years, 10 months ago
          The IRS' and EPA's putting fear into producers makes us error on the side of overcompliance.
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          • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 10 months ago
            On the 3rd IRS encounter, I went to them. I had all my paperwork in order. I decided that I was going to fight the fact that I owed them around $800. I was so certain of my proof that I didn't even bring my accountant with me. I waited about ten minutes in the office of the agent. The person who arrived was a 5' 250lb black lady in a housedress wearing mule style carpet slippers. She had a scowl on her face, and .I quickly decided that there was no way I was going to win that battle, so I just whipped out my checkbook and got out of there ASAP. Don't tell me I should have fought. "He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day."
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            • Posted by H2ungar123 8 years, 10 months ago
              Housedress? Mule=style slippers? Reason
              enough to flee, which sadly, seems to be the
              route most preferred for some of us lately. And
              what does that say about us?? Battle-weary?
              Fighting spirit all gone??? Not good!!
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              • Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 10 months ago
                This was in the 80s. I since learned that many Govt. workers make their offices their home away from home. This wouldn't be allowed in most private sector jobs. I even knew a man who sold software for commercial purposes who had around 40 people manning the headsets. He required the men to wear business attire as well as the women. He felt that dressing well gave them a more business-like attitude. In my case, as my business' grew, I acquired better accountant firms who dealt with the IRS without bothering me. Since it was their responsibility and reputation when an IRS problem came up, they dealt with it and I rarely had to bother. I did learn that the accountants were more savvy than most of the IRS agents and knew the law better than they did. As a result From then on, I was mostly let alone.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 10 months ago
    Amen to the last line. It's a fascist tax on it's face and has no reason to exist other than control of the population.
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    • Posted by $ 8 years, 10 months ago
      Showing taxes as fascist would make a popular campaign video.
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      • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 8 years, 10 months ago
        True. Fascist meaning control by any means includes methods not necessarily used by Nazis and Communists or others of the direct torture and elimination segment. Control of any citizens income, their medical, their education, the rearing of their children, and who they are allowed to vote for is just as insiduous and evil even though not one water board was used. so far.These things seem to progress in a regressive manner.

        The alternative is the end user consumption tax which puts each wage earner in charge of their spending or for their savings. I MIGHT go along with a Right To Life provision for certain items needed to simply exist and in a certain dollar amount or limit which would include all welfare as income. Food, Shelter, Clothing, Medicine, Air and water (for those in Detroit) After that what to purchase, for how much, and when is the citizens decision the price of which governs the amount of end user tax AS LONG AS it completely replaced the other taxes.None of this we'll keep that in reserve for emergencies crap. If the government doesn't have enough then let them downsize or better yet use the recall to force a downsize and a return to their real job as employees not masters. That is citizens controlling government by their vote and by their purchases. Dump the draft completely for a third way to vote join up or not join up. has to start somewhere But the Right To Life Exemption from end user consumption tax (like the sales tax free days in Florida. has some merit.

        Next question. Does it ban income tax at all levels? If not then that level gets no income from the End User Tax better yet a complete ban. rather than leave a 50 head medusa.

        Then as I've done explain the replacement as a freedom of choice measure. the opposite of a fascist no choice system. Government over citizens or citizens over government. There are only two choices and there should be only one. If Government over citizens is retained there should be only none.
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  • Posted by gaiagal 8 years, 10 months ago
    And why would members of the government want to abolish the IRS? or reform taxes in any way shape or form? For what reasons would you abolish, or reform, your source(s) of income?
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  • Posted by johnpe1 8 years, 10 months ago
    Dr. Jim, this guy Koskinen has been an obvious
    haughty, arrogant we'll-get-you-for-that mister nasty
    since we first saw him, and a letter from him would
    only be good for recycle, I'd say. . LifeLock has a
    good team, but I don't know if they can be called in
    "after-the-fact." . maybe they can. . they have
    helped my wife and me. -- j
    .
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  • Posted by alan 8 years, 10 months ago
    Part of the problem really lies in the IRS and almost everyone else using the SSN as a personal ID number -- for which it was never intended.

    The SSN itself is not self-validating as were the credit card numbers in the 1980s (as every C/C now uses the same formula for a single check digit).

    One can create a fictitious SSN by somewhat randomly selecting a nine digit sequence. Generally there is no verification by the IRS of the address provided with the return to determine if there is a difference from the IRS files -- because people do not use the mechanism originally established by the IRS requiring all filers to file a change of address form indicating old and new addresses.

    The IRS no longer has the personnel to even process the change of address forms.

    Example: Someone in Africa happened to duplicate one of my C/C numbers and used it to make a purchase in the US under some name with an African address. The vendor never asked for the verification info on the card, such as name, CSV code, or expiration date. The C/C company promptly removed the charge from my account and withdrew the funds from the vendor, who was then out of luck! My discussion with the vendor confirmed all of the above.
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  • Posted by GaryL 8 years, 10 months ago
    I always wonder if any of these Pay as you go ID theft protection deals can actually protect you or even get things cleaned up when your ID is hacked? Just last year my credit card company notified me three times and changed my card numbers because of fraudulent activity. It is a real PITA but at least they are watching out for this stuff.
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  • Posted by woodlema 8 years, 10 months ago
    1) How did they get your SS Number in the first place.
    2) How did they get your previous years 1040 filing?

    They did not get that info from the IRS, they simply used what they got elsewhere and used it.
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  • Posted by Zenphamy 8 years, 10 months ago
    Since the IRS's response to Ayotte indicated that they would redact the information on what they sent to the victim taxpayer, I'm not sure how it would have been of help, except in the instance that it might have provided documentation if another ID theft occurrence cape up.

    But damn, doesn't it irk the hell out of you. Does SSA issue you a new SSN once its been determined stolen?
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  • Posted by khalling 8 years, 10 months ago
    Whoa. How did you find out?
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    • Posted by $ 8 years, 10 months ago
      The IRS sent me a letter that I received yesterday asking me to confirm my identity. When I contacted them and gave them the necessary information, the agent told me that someone else had also filed an attempted refund request using my SSN. He also told me that he could not supply any further information other than the length of time that the investigation would take.

      I guess I didn't renounce my citizenship fast enough.
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      • Posted by khalling 8 years, 10 months ago
        I have read about this before. and that it can be a nightmare to fix. I hope it will not be for you. The culprits try it based on numbers. They say (anonymously of course) tht they can get about 80% of the applications they file through and make handsome livings doing it. Alot of the people doing it are russian mafia.
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  • Posted by jabuttrick 8 years, 10 months ago
    Exactly the same thing happened to me couple of months ago. When I talked to the IRS they would give me no information and seemed completely uninterested in the info I had to give them. I had been burglarized in early January and I wanted to give them the police report number so they could coordinate their "investigation" with that of the police. They wouldn't take the information!
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