Identity Thieves Impacting Your Taxes

Sure, identity thieves impact the extra money billed to your credit card, and anything financial. However, a less obvious problem that most of us often forget is the impact an identity thief may have on our taxes making it a financial nightmare to get through.

The general identity thief will only steal your credit card identity or information in order to charge a couple more bills to your credit card which insurance may be able to cover. However, there is a new trend which is even trickier and troublesome than credit card identity information theft, and that is a scheme that will impact your taxes, and what needs to be reported.

Wait for it... the new line of business that is becoming more popular among identity thieves is selling your social security insurance number. Now, you may be wondering, who would want my social security insurance number? Surprisingly, there is a long line of waiting customers who are interested in buying your social security number like undocumented workers, and those with bad credit .Bottom line is, they can work with your social security number and information so that any income they earn will be reported as income to you; thus, you may be penalized for under reporting your income to the IRS giving you lots of trouble. Obviously, if records ever indicating you receiving wages from jobs you've never done before, you're a victim of identity theft.

Also, for undocumented workers especially, with more and more jobs needing a social security number, and real identity, the higher the demand there is for your social security number. Also, remember that if you are to "under report" your income because of having someone else use your security social number, you may have to go in for an audit, and you definitely will have lots that you will need to explain.

Last but not least, don't forget that tax refunds are easy to file, and there's nothing stopping an identity thief in filing a tax refund in your name but pocketing all the refunds themselves. This is also very troublesome as they are bound to file many fraudulent claims in order to maximize the refunds that they will receive. After all, they won't be the one in trouble, and you're the only one who will need to explain yourself. A big indicator that your identity is stolen is if the IRS claims that you have filed more than one tax return report.

Identity theft is as big of a problem as it is; however, it really isn't as troublesome as when your social security number is stolen - after all, it really can get worse. If you are ever suspicious of having someone stolen your social security number, it is important to notify the IRS immediately. Don't be hesitant to call the IRS as it will help solve a lot more problems that you will have to face later on.