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Income Tax

Most CPAs Surveyed Had Tax Clients Affected by ID Theft

Resolving issue for clients with IRS often proved difficult, according to AICPA.

Isaac M. O'Bannon

Aug. 13, 2015

Tax ID Theft 1 54d6d07eafd9c

Almost two-thirds of CPA tax practitioners (63 percent) said they had one or more clients victimized by identity theft in the 2015 filing season, according to an annual tax software survey conducted by the American Institute of CPAs.

The survey — which appears in the August edition of The Tax Adviser, a monthly magazine of tax news and information from the AICPA — polled almost 5,000 CPA tax preparers, largely from small firms, about their experience in encountering identity theft. This is the first time the survey has included questions on that topic. Among the findings:

  • Ninety-seven percent of survey takers said the issue affected fewer than five percent of their clients
  • Thirty-nine percent of CPA tax practitioners said it was either difficult or very difficult to resolve identity theft problems with the IRS on behalf of their clients
  • Forty-four percent of clients were unaware of any identity theft before their CPA attempted to file this year.

An overview of the survey findings can be found in The Tax Adviser.

Methodology

The 2015 Tax Software Survey was conducted from May 4-25, 2015, and received qualified responses from 4,991 CPAs who prepared tax year 2014 returns for a fee. Some 72 percent of respondents were from firms with five or fewer tax preparers.