 Into the revenue service R.R.S. tax news. Taxpayers should hang up if tax season scammers come calling. And I totally agree with that because like, if you keep talking to the tax scammers, they'll totally suck you into their story. It's like, no, no, I'm not giving you access to all my social media accounts, you tax scammer. I don't care if you say the IRS needs it. Yeah, I'm hanging up. I'm hanging up. Whatever, whatever. If the IRS hunts me down because I won't share my social media accounts with you, then so be it. You know, I've had enough of this tax season scamming. Good night, mom. And then you just hang up on her. Don't feel bad. It was really your only option. I mean, it's just like that time when she asked for the password to your router as part of like a neighborhood watch safety project. And from then on, she seemed to know just when your alarm clock went off in the morning, the phone ringing five minutes after. Honestly, like how, how could it possibly be tax related at this point? I haven't been a dependent for over 20 years. Oh, okay, Phil, I see. So now I'm a jerk. I see Phil. You know, I really, I really don't need to hear from you right now, Phil. I don't, I don't need to hear from you right now. I do expect this to be edited out too. Dang it, Phil. I mean, honestly, I'm starting to think tax scamming is like the least of my worries. IRS Tax Tip 2023-02 January 9, 2023. The tax filing season is a popular time for scammers to call and try to dupe unsuspecting tax payers. And we don't want to be duped because then we feel like a dope, but you shouldn't feel like a dope because they could be quite sneaky, those tax scammers. So you just got to be on the lookout for them. So these thieves often make threatening or alarming calls posing as the IRS to try and steal taxpayer money or personal information. So obviously the IRS is a scary institution in and of itself. So they use that fear factor to try to steal your money. So beware. So however, it's easy for people to recognize this scam by knowing how the IRS contacts taxpayers. So it's useful to know that the IRS is a bureaucratic institution. They're not usually going to be applying these really short time kind of fear tactics that are usually involved in the typical scam, which will usually be involving some kind of action you need to be taking in a short period of time. Or you're either going to lose something that you could get like a prize or something in this case, possibly like a refund or some kind of tax benefit, or you're going to be hit with some kind of penalty very quickly, like being arrested or something for not doing whatever they want to do, which is to take your information most likely or get access to the bank account or send them some money in some way, shape or form. Typically the IRS is a long, slow process and you're well aware of what's going on by the time they take action usually. So the IRS will never call to demand immediate payment using a specific payment method such as a prepaid debit card, gift card or wire transfer. I knew it. I knew she was lying. Anyways, generally the IRS will first mail a bill to any taxpayer who owes taxes. So obviously if they asked you to pay them with a gift card, that should really kind of be the call there to say something is wrong because you can't trace the gift card. You want to be able to anytime you're paying something that you want to track for taxes, whether that be expenses or paying the IRS directly, you would like to have an audit trail. That's not when you're trying to erase the audit trail, right? So the gift card clearly seems like a way to remove the audit trail, which is a quite suspicious, you know, kind of thing to do. So I threaten to immediately bring in local police or law enforcement groups to have the taxpayer arrested for not paying. So this would be a common kind of, again, the short range strategy. So you got to take action or you're going to lose out in a short period of time. Either you're not going to get a benefit. We're going to send you a refund, but we can't do it because you didn't give us the information. Or you're going to get arrested like that right now in the short period of time. And again, anytime you see that combination, you got to think this sounds kind of like a scammy situation because they're trying to spark a fear factor for an immediate action instead of letting you kind of think it through. So demand that taxes be paid without giving taxpayers the opportunity to request and appeal the amount owed. So note that the IRS, once again, bureaucratic institution, they will usually, if they think you owe them taxes and it's a change to your tax return or something like that, then they're going to propose the changes and give you an option to argue with them about it. Again, you can't argue based on anything. You'd have to argue based on the tax code, but you do have the recourse to argue back based on the tax code. If they just say, oh, we found that you owe us money and we're just going to, we're just, just give us money right now. And you have no idea like why, you know, or what changes they made or how they made them. That's not how it works. So I'll call unexpectedly about a tax refund. So they're not typically going to call you unexpectedly. And this time say you have a refund that could potentially be coming, but you have to give us information. So this time, instead of the threat, they want short term action. They want you to act promptly or else you're now going to not be arrested, but rather you're going to lose out on this big benefit that you would otherwise have. So taxpayers who receive these phone calls should record the number and then hang up on the phone immediately, report the call by visiting the hotline page of Treasury Inspector General, the Tax Administration and using an IRS impersonation scam reporting form or by calling 800-366-4484. I've tried that. It doesn't work. My mom still does it, whatever. Forms report fraud and available on the hotline page of Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration website. So notice that doing these actions isn't usually going to save you or give you any protection after you've already been scammed, right? Or after the scam has taken place, you're not really looking for something usually for immediate relief to you personally. You're looking to build information on the IRS's side of things. So hopefully once they compile enough information, they can take action and help other people. So it's almost like it seems to me more like a community service type of action to be reporting this stuff so that the government can take action on it. Which you would think they could, you know, I don't know, it's a complicated thing, but you would think they could take action more on these things, but maybe not. I don't know. Taxpayers just click the appropriate option under IRS scam and fraud and follow the instructions. Report the number to phishingatirs.gov. There's an email here and put quote IRS phone scam end quote in the subscription. So you got more information or in the subject line, not the subscription. You got more information at tax scams and consumer alerts. Report phishing and online scams and there's links to that here. There'll be a link to this in the description. And of course just for the record, of course, just a joke. My mom doesn't actually call me for tax scamming stuff and whatnot. But in any case, whoever's calling you for tax scamming stuff, just note that you've got links here for the IRS to at least inform them of the person that's annoying you so that they probably won't do anything about it. But anyways, there it is. There'll be a link to this in the description.