With a Week Before Tax Day, Merkley Calls on IRS to Tackle Tax Id Theft

Statement

In preparation for tax day, Senator Merkley visited the Matt Dishman Community Center to call on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to increase its efforts to effectively tackle the problem of tax ID theft. As of September 2015, over 600,000 Americans were victims of tax ID theft and the IRS paid out $5.8 billion in fraudulent tax returns in 2013.

To address this growing problem, Senator Merkley and Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) sent a letter to the IRS Commissioner today, to highlight the threat of tax ID theft and ask the IRS to respond to questions about efforts to combat this issue.

"Too many Oregonians are being cheated out of their tax refunds by criminals who steal their identities and their refund checks," said Merkley. "This is a growing problem and we need action from the IRS to combat this criminal activity and create security within our nation's accounting system."

Senator Merkley was joined at today's event by Mark Ertle who has been a victim of tax ID theft and turned to Senator Merkley's office for help.

"The implications of tax ID theft can affect victims for months and years after first discovering that your identity has been stolen along with your tax refund," said Mark Ertle of Portland. "For me I lost out on a home I wanted to purchase because my fraudulent tax returns were mistakenly sent to my bank which were in conflict with my legitimate returns I provided to my financial institution. It was then incumbent upon me to prove that my financial records were correct and what was received from the IRS were in fact incorrect due to ID theft. I had to endure a cloud of suspicion from my bank that I was the one committing fraud and not a victim of cybercrime as I claimed. I'm pleased that Senator Merkley is asking for action on this issue that affects thousands of Oregonians each year."

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