According to a report published on September 4th by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), the Internal Revenue Service is processing citizen complaints of tax fraud by tax preparers slowly and inefficiently.
In 2013, about 77 million individual tax returns were prepared by paid preparers, and fraud committed by tax return preparers is an increasingly substantial issue for both taxpayers and the IRS. Processing of taxpayer complaints by the IRS regarding tax preparer fraud has proceeded at such a slow pace that, for 47% of the complaints submitted in 2012 & 2013, work has not yet been initiated by the IRS.
The TIGTA report recommended eight corrective actions designed to improve the timeliness and efficiency of the process, and, according to a TIGTA press release, IRS management has agreed to put in place six of the recommendations made. Hopefully going forward the IRS will be able to successfully process complaints and protect taxpayers from the potential dangers of such tax fraud.