Don't Mess With Taxes

When the Internal Revenue Service and its Security Summit partners announced in October their initial efforts to combat tax identity theft and related return fraud, tax software manufacturers and state tax departments were on board, chiming in on ways to end this growing threat.

The next month, the IRS announced "Taxes-Security-Together," its effort to enlist taxpayers in the fight against tax identity theft.

Now it's tax professionals' turn.

The IRS is asking tax preparers for their thoughts on tax ID theft. It has developed an online survey, with the 13 questions dealing with the tax pro's familiarity with security issues; instances in which the professional has been personally involved, either with clients as ID theft victims or the preparer sustaining a data breach; and general information about the preparer's business.

The survey is basic, but it's just a starting point to determine paid tax preparers' awareness of and concern about tax-related identity theft.

If you're a tax professional, take a few minutes to fill out the survey. The IRS is accepting responses through Jan. 15, 2016.

And if you want some additional information, or to do a little pre-survey prep, the IRS has a special Web page with identity theft information for tax preparers.

You also might find these items of interest:

• Security taxpayer data is IRS' biggest challenge
• IRS says free identity theft protection services are tax-free
• Tax ID theft solutions complicated by undocumented workers' SSN, ITIN filings