COVID-19 Individual Update

IRS Warns of Tax Scams

IRS asks taxpayers to be aware of the possibility of scams involving economic impact payments. It notes:

..."IRS isn't going to call you asking to verify or provide your financial information so you can get an economic impact payment or your refund faster. That also applies to surprise emails that appear to be coming from the IRS."

...Taxpayers should also watch out for text messages, websites, and social media attempts that request money or personal information.

...In most cases, IRS will deposit economic impact payments into the direct deposit account taxpayers previously provided on tax returns. Those taxpayers who have previously filed but did not provide direct deposit information to IRS will be able to provide their banking information online to a newly designed secure portal on IRS.gov in mid-April. If IRS does not have a taxpayer's direct deposit information, a check will be mailed to the address on file. Taxpayers should not provide their direct deposit or other banking information for others to input on their behalf into the secure portal.

...IRS is sending these payments automatically to retirees - no additional action or information is needed on their part to receive their payments.

...Where taxpayers receive calls, IRS instructs them not to engage with scammers or thieves. Taxpayers should not tell the caller that the taxpayer knows it's a scam or that he thinks he can beat them. Rather, IRS says, just hang up.

...If you receive a "check" in the mail "now," it's a fraud.

...Scammers are likely to:

• Emphasize the words "Stimulus Check" or "Stimulus Payment." The official term is economic impact payment.

• Ask the taxpayer to sign over their economic impact payment check to them.

• Ask by phone, email, text, or social media for verification of personal and/or banking information saying that the information is needed to receive or speed up their economic impact payment.

• Suggest that the taxpayer can get a tax refund or economic impact payment faster by working on the taxpayer's behalf. This scam could be conducted by social media or even in person.

• Mail the taxpayer a bogus check, perhaps in an odd amount, then tell the taxpayer to call a number or verify information online in order to cash it.

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To continue reading about all the changes being made in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, please feel free to visit the links provided below:

FEDERAL
https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus  Internal Revenue Service – Coronavirus Tax Relief
https://home.treasury.gov/coronavirus U.S. Department of the Treasury
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/economic-impact-payments-what-you-need-to-know  Stimulus Checks
https://www.coronavirus.gov/ - Centers for Disease Control

State of Maryland
https://www.marylandtaxes.gov/index.php   Comptroller of Maryland
https://governor.maryland.gov/coronavirus/   The Hogan Administration’s COVID-19 Response
https://secure-2.dllr.state.md.us/NetClaims/Welcome.aspx  File for Unemployment

State of Virginia
https://www.tax.virginia.gov/news/coronavirus-updates  Virginia Department of Taxation – Updates
https://www.virginia.gov/coronavirus/  The Official Site of The Commonwealth of Virginia

Government of the District of Columbia
https://coronavirus.dc.gov/recovery-individuals
https://does.dcnetworks.org/initialclaims/?Lang=en-US Unemployment Application

Other Sources
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/  Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center