WASHINGTON (WKOW) -
The Internal Revenue Service(IRS) released its annual list Thursday of the "Dirty Dozen" tax scams for the year.
The list, as always, contains a variety of scams consumers may encounter at any point during the year, but tend to peak during tax-filing season.
"Scam artists will tempt people in-person, on-line and by e-mail with misleading promises about lost refunds and free money," said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. "Don't be fooled by these scams."
This year's Dirty Dozen list includes Return Preparer Fraud, by those who prey on unsuspecting taxpayers. Some signs that you are dealing with an unscrupulous return preparer would include that they:
- Do not sign the return or place a Preparer Tax Identification Number(PTIN) on it.
- Do not give you a copy of your tax return.
- Promise larger than normal tax refunds.
- Charge a percentage of the refund amount as preparation fee.
- Require you to split the refund to pay the preparation fee.
- Add forms to the return you have never filed before.
- Encourage you to place false information on your return, like false income, expenses and/or credits.
For the complete list of Dirty Dozen tax scams for 2012, you can go to www.irs.gov and click on the "news" tab.
