TIGTA Releases Largely Redacted Report Critical of Tax E-filing Privacy Safeguards

There are insufficient controls in place to prevent a taxpayer from filing an electronic tax return using another taxpayer’s electronic filing identification number, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a redacted version of an audit report made public April 27.

According to the report, which covers the period from March 11, 2005, to Oct. 21, 2010, there were 1,192 electronic filing identification numbers reported to the Internal Revenue Service as being compromised. The report said that more than 60 million individual taxpayer returns were e-filed in Fiscal Year 2010.

TIGTA undertook the audit after its TIGTA Office ...