IRS Tax Security 101 Campaign for Preparers

The IRS has kicked off a 10 week awareness campaign for tax professionals. This new effort by the IRS, State tax agencies and the private sector tax industry is aimed at making tax preparers aware of the continued threat to tax and financial data that is held by them.

This new campaign called “Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself: Security 101” is intended to provide tax professionals with the basic information that they need to better protect taxpayer data and to help prevent the filing of fraudulent tax returns that is based on stolen taxpayer data taken from the preparer’s computer system. It will run for ten weeks and will focus each week on topics such as security, passwords, recognizing spear phishing, monitoring and protecting your EFIN, signs of data theft and a tax preparer’s legal obligation to protect taxpayer data.

It is important to understand that this time of year is when the cybercriminals ramp up their efforts in targeting tax preparers in an effort to obtain their clients tax return information. So it is important for tax preparers to remain vigilant and take the necessary steps to protect their computers and thus protect their customer’s information throughout the year.

For more details on this campaign see IRS News Release Tax Security 101 on the IRS website.

With this in mind here are a few recent IRS videos that can help tax preparers protect themselves against breaches of their computer systems and what to do if they are compromised:

• Why Tax Professionals need a Security Plan
• How to Maintain, Monitor, and Protect Your EFIN
• What to Do After a Tax Professional Data Compromise

Also, there are publications that tax return preparers will find useful as to what steps they need to take to protect themselves:

• Newly Revised IRS Publication 4557 (Safeguarding Taxpayer Data)
• New Publication 5293 (Data Security Resource Guide for Tax Professionals)
• Small Business Information Security: The Fundamentals published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology

And here are some helpful IRS webpages on security for tax return preparers:

• Basic Security Steps/Signs of Data Loss
• Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself – main page
• Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself: Tax Security 101 – New information will be posted weekly for the next ten weeks
• Tax Practitioner Guide to Business Identity Theft
• Don’t Take the Bait – 2017 Awareness campaign
• 2017 National Tax Security Awareness Week Tips

Visit the CrossLink Tax Resource Center to learn more.