 Internal Revenue Service IRS tax news during National Cyber Security Month IRS and Security Summit partners offer tips Tips that's great. I love tips, but like I always ask all my customers Do you mind giving me the tips and cash so I don't have to report about my taxes? I mean, I mean, uh, excuse me. I are meant to say I report all my tips But like I just like to feel a cash for some strange reason I mean, I even totally plan on reporting that $20 bill I found on the ground at lunch After turning over the bill to the police and waiting the required three-month period of nobody claiming the money as lost or stolen, of course Sorry for the confusion. It's just strange receiving tips from the IRS when you guys make a living taking them But in any case the other news of the day is that there's a 401k limit increase to $22,500 for 2023 IRA IRA limit rises to $6,500. Oh my goodness. Don't remind me about my 401k plan President Biden's economy is killing me My 401k plan is like a 401k drain at this point At this rate, I'm gonna be working when I'm as old as President Biden looks And as we all know, the only job suited for somebody in such a poor condition is president of the United States Who wants to do that? But in any case first to joke man does not live by bread alone All I got was a bunch of soggy bread Yeah, excuse me, ma'am We need some butter over here Honestly, Phil the surface in this place man, don't live by bread alone, you know Phil Thank you butter. Yeah, that's fine. Oh no, no, no, no, you'll get crumbs in it. Why? Because it's too dry It's too salty. It's too dry. It's too burnt and frozen at the same time Honestly, look at the surface at that other table, Phil. Look at that table. Look at that table They seem to know on which side their bread is buttered That's fine Do you even know what this scene is about? Yeah, it's about a guy buying a loaf of bread and it's buttered on both sides No Bread is his soul. He's trying to buy back a loaf of his soul. Well, we don't have any butter at all What's the deal? Oh, I see Phil Franklin Nordberg said I love you. He was telling you the name of the ship. It's because they ordered garlic bread. Is it? I realize that now Well, we would like some of that garlic bread too Hey, I want some of that It'd be great not having to know on which side my bread was buttered because it was buttered on both sides One would Cheap meat Oh, this one's open What's that Phil you're having a tough day? I'm having a really bad day. It seems like bread always falls butter side down Phil is my bread and Well, yeah, Phil that's because we're buttering both sides of the bread now I mean, what do you expect the bread to fall crust side down? And I'm not gonna let you goody two whores take that away from me I are 2022-187 october 21st, 2022 Washington the internal revenue service and its security summit partners today urged families to remain vigilant year round And consider taking additional steps to protect their personal information. There's a link to that here during national security month Cyber security awareness month conducted every october is a collaboration between government and private industry to raise awareness About digital security and empower everyone to protect themselves against cyber crime While the irs and its security summit partners, there's a link to that here Continue a robust effort fighting identity theft and fraudulent tax returns. It is still needed Families especially teens and seniors need to know the importance of being cautious and how to stay safe online So obviously the most vulnerable people for the cyber crimes are typically going to be those that have less experience With this kind of online environment Most of us if we're working online all the time We see these ever-changing spams that are hitting us all the time and we're kind of immune to it We've drawn some calluses to it at this point, but you can imagine that if you're not used to that type of environment It can be quite intimidating So people that are moving into that world younger people And people that that are getting older and possibly aren't aren't used to all the ever-changing kind of Stam that's being shot out are typically going to be the most vulnerable Individuals although when the spammers do get more targeted Towards an individual which they have been doing more for the cpa firms and accountants Possibly trying to get more information from one target rather than doing the shotgun approach Then they can they can be quite Convincing in those types of cases and you got to be careful there as well as the iris has been warning us for Quite some time at this point So and just realize that the identity kind of component giving people your identity kind of information Possibly for them to file fraudulent returns has increased as we've had these problems with the pandemic and the economy And then the government sending out money and changing the tax code to have more stuff to be refundable Because there might be more money to have by basically stealing that kind of information Even for information of people that don't have much money right because they're trying to get The benefits and so forth with it possibly get a refund for it So in any case the security summit is a coalition of state tax agencies private sector tax industry officials and the irs that work year-round to protect taxpayers Together they are fighting back against emerging criminal threats in the united states and overseas that use identity theft To file fraudulent returns for refunds. They're like the new justice league partners that are fighting the crime Out there during national cyber security month The irs is asking parents families and others to be mindful There's a link to being mindful of the potential dangers in sharing devices at home shopping online and using social media Often the less experience can put themselves and others at risk by leaving an unnecessary trail of personal information for fraudsters So clearly a lot more people are spending a lot more time online with the social media And we're working online oftentimes. We're often using the phone basically to tell us where to go So at this point you're kind of you might be thinking well, it's pretty difficult not to have some kind of trail Online at this point in time But it is we can at least limit that to some to some degree and obviously be aware of of the environments That we're in and so on and possible fraudsters and how they might be Able to take advantage of it So online safety a few simple suggestions that can help protect children and other vulnerable groups from potential dangers to their personal data Or recognize and avoid scams So clearly again, most of the scams if if you've been in the environment for a long time Are pretty easy to recognize because they're not really Designed to hit and get a target of an experienced individual They're really targeted for people that are are less experienced on the margins They actually oftentimes don't want the experienced individual to follow through and call someone with a spam email or something like that Because they're less likely to go through with whatever scam it is Such as giving them money with a by the gift card or something like that The ones that are likely to follow through with the whole scam are going to be the inexperienced ones having Emails that are are kind of kind of not sophisticated Actually filters out the people that will will follow through with the scam But again, they if they feel like there's a target that would be worth their while To specialize on an individual like in this case the cpa firms that have a lot of information at one target Then they can get some more sophisticated kind of Scams so you got the phishing emails fake social media profiles threatening phone calls and texts from thieves As the irs or legitimate organizations, especially government programs present ongoing risks And they seem to be getting more Aggressive these days because it used to be you know, you would think that it's kind of difficult to impersonate the irs And so on most people are not going not going to you know, kind of fall for that And I think as the rules change over time as the irs is trying to get more modernized and move on To using things possibly more like emails and online accounts and that kind of stuff People have less awareness on how the irs works and maybe that makes things a little bit more vulnerable But usually there's going to be a threat usually there's going to be a time constraint Type of thing that's going to be involved with it And usually they're going to be trying to get you to go and take action somewhere possibly to another website Or to download something that could be harmful to the computer or you know, infect your computer So learn what a scam call sounds like. There's a link to that here and do not click on links or download attachments from Unsolicited suspicious emails. There's a link to that here from unknown senders and verify contact content Context with trusted senders So even if you're getting personal information say from a trusted center for example You want to verify it with them to make sure that no one is like spoofing their email as they send it to you Never overshare providing only what is necessary will minimize online exposures to scammers and criminals Do not share too much personal information like birth dates addresses age Financial information such as bank account and social security numbers Now, of course, this is good advice But I in in this environment when everybody is basically working online And they also have all their social media kind of stuff online and are doing personal kind of communication online This kind of stuff gets difficult to near impossible when you're talking about personal information like say birth dates and say addresses and stuff and stuff like that If you were to pay For a site to try to look up someone's identity in terms of their birth dates and their addresses Oftentimes many people I think are going to have that out there even if they're somewhat vigilant Clearly, you don't want to have your bank account information and your social security numbers out there The social security number even that these days Given the fact that you're you've had one social security number since your entire life And you've had to give it to every financial institution every employer Your entire life and it's never changed It's getting more and more likely to me It would seem that the social security number is going to get compromised You would think if you got to get a more sophisticated at some point You would think possibly to have a number maybe the changes over time I don't know the bank account clearly can't you know change over time and so forth So Hopefully you got security on the bank account number, but obviously you don't want to share this stuff Just all you know on the social media and whatnot clearly not the social security and the bank account numbers but I would Expect just from normal transactions things like a birthday And your address are going to be are going to be out there somewhere but public wi-fi networks Connection to wi-fi in a small or cough in a mall or coffee shop is convenient But it may not be safe cyber criminals can easily intercept personal information on public networks So always use a virtual private network when connecting to public wi-fi So if you go to public wi-fi, then clearly you're using their wi-fi connection It's open So you have more nodes more points of communication for people to get into your Personal, you know network or whatever you're working on So you want to be careful working in those situations And if you are working in those situations and using sensitive data in them Then you want to you want to look into a vpn a virtual network Virtual private network and make sure you have an understanding of how that works Use security software and anti-vibers protection Make sure electronic devices have security software that is always turned on and can automatically update Encrypt sensitive files such as tax records Stored on computers ensure all family members have comprehensive protection, especially if devices are being shared Use strong unique passwords for each account Considered a password manager enable two factor or multifactor authentication There's a link to that here for business personal and online accounts. Remember the irs does not use text messages Or social media to discuss personal tax issues such as those involving tax refunds or tax bills For more information visit tax scams and consumer alerts page on irs.gov There's a link to that here additional information about tax scams is also available on irs Social media sites including youtube videos. There's a link to that here Also see publication four five two four security awareness for taxpayers. There's a link to that here There'll be a link to all this stuff here and there'll be a link to this in the description