 Internal Revenue Service R.R.S. tax news, filing season readiness for tax pros, review data safeguards. Ah, tax season. When the tax forms turn red and fall off the employment tree, when we gather all the fruits of our labor together in one place and attempt to height them under the floorboards before the Sheriff of Nottingham shows up, you know, to take our fruit and redistribute it to like clean energy companies that don't actually make much energy but rather just funnel the funds to highly paid politically connected management? I mean, it's ridiculous. Hey, I think Hunter Biden had some experience in the energy sector for a while, didn't he? I mean, honestly, maybe if we could just find his laptop, it would contain the key to solving the global warming problem once and for all. Oh my gosh, we found it, and it does have the answer. Rather than burning fossil fuels for energy, it's far more efficient to just burn crack. Honestly, the answer was under his nose the whole time, just before going up it. But first a joke. Apparently, the Girl Scouts primary source of fundraising has moved from selling cookies to nuts. Forget trying to squeeze stories out of this. We need to expand. We could find out kinds of great gossip out there and hone it in. And of course, conspiracy theorists believe that this new focus on nuts is yet another attempt to trans the kids. What makes a man, Mr. Lebowski? Dude, huh? I don't know, sir. I mean, apparently the results of the Girl Scout nut sales are read aloud to the Girl Scouts during like a special hour of the drag queen story hour. Is it being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the cost? Isn't that what makes a man? And the Girl Scout with the most nuts, whether real or synthetic, wins. I'm sure that in a pair of testicles. I mean, obviously, it's basically the same rules as like a modern beauty contest. But the gossip we've been printing is hurting everypony's feelings. Feelings? I don't care about feelings. Gabby Gums is my bread and I'm not gonna let you goody two whore use, take that away from me. As tax tip 2022-180, November 23, 2022, as tax professionals begin preparing for the upcoming filing season, reviewing their security measures should be at the top of their to-do list. The Taxes Security Together checklist, there's a link to that checklist here, can help tax them identify the basic, I don't think that tax should be there. The Taxes Security Together checklist can help them identify the basic steps they should take to safeguard their clients and their business. They put like an extra word in there, I feel like. That's okay, IRS. I do that all the time. It's okay. Here we go. Here are some of the recommended safety measures. Have security and data theft plans. The IRS and Security Summit partners remind tax professionals that the federal law requires them to have a written information security plan. In addition to the required information security plan, tax pros also should consider an emergency response plan should they experience a breach and data theft. This time saving step should include contact information for the IRS stakeholder liaison. There's a link to that here. Who are the first point of contact for data theft reporting to the IRS and to the states? You want to use multi-factor authentication to protect tax accounts. Practitioners can download to their mobile phones readily available authentication apps offered through Google Play or the Apple Store. The apps will generate a security code. Codes may also go to a preparer's email or text, but the IRS notes those are not as secure as the authentication apps. So tax professionals can search for, quote, authentication apps, end quote, and a search engine to learn more. So for more information on multi-factor authentication, tax payers should visit the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency website. So obviously we've got that multi-factor thing now where you got two machines typically would be the general idea, but obviously, you know, it's possible to get an email on the same computer. So now you might have two things, but it might be on the same machine, even a text possibly these days. If someone had access to your texting, you know, then maybe they can get in there. So possibly the app is a way to go with this. So we're getting multi-factor authentication and possibly even more sophisticated with how we can maximize the use of it. So use virtual private network to protect remote sites. A VPN provides a secure encrypted way to transmit data between a remote user via the internet and the company network. So the VPN becoming more and more important, especially if you're working outside the office or if you have an office that has people that are no longer coming to the office because they got used to not coming to the office during COVID or something. Now you've got those extra nodes where they're doing work outside and now you've got them connecting to the internet and now it's coming to the internal network and so on. So that's more data breach points you would think for hackers. So then the VPN possibly can help out in that situation. So as teleworking or working from home continues, VPNs are critical to protecting and securing internet connections. Failure to use a VPN for remote communication can allow an attacker to eavesdrop on network communications. Tax professionals should consult cybersecurity experts whenever possible. Practitioners can also search for, quote, best VPNs, end quote, to find a legitimate vendor or major technology sites often provide lists of top services. So they should never click on a, quote, pop-up, end quote, advertisement for a security product. Those generally are scams. So when you get those pop-ups coming up, then, you know, more and more, those are obviously not as trustworthy of things to be dealing with. You want to be searching directly on the, you know, do your own search for them generally. So avoid phishing scams and attempts to steal EFI ends. Phishing emails generally have an urgent message such as account password expired. They direct users to an official looking link or attachment. However, the link may take users to a fake site made to appear like a trusted source where it requires a username and password. The attachment may contain malware, which secretly downloads software that tracks keystrokes and allows thieves to eventually steal all the tax prose passwords. So it's very scary, very dark and sinister stuff right there. Tell you what. Anyways, attacking tax prose, the salt of the earth, the tax prose, I tell you. Anyways, scam emails can target tax prose by seeking EFIN information. So one scam example says it's from, quote, IRS tax e-filing, end quote, and has the subject line, quote, verifying EFIN before e-filing, end quote. Tax prose should not take any of the steps outlined in these types of emails, especially responding to the email. So those who receive a scam email should save it as a file and then send it as an attachment to phishingatIRS.gov. Is that going to do anything for you personally? No, most likely. But you're going to give the information to the government. Hopefully they can compile enough of that information together to actually do something about it. So they also should notify the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. There's a link to that here to report the IRS impersonation scam, both TIGTA and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division are aware of spear phishing scams targeting tax preparers. Oh, are you? You would think you would be at this point. That's good that you know about it. Anyways, more information at the link below. You got Publication 5293, Data Security Resource Guide for Tax Professionals. There's a link to that here. There's links to all the other stuff here. There'll be a link to this in the description.