The Internal Revenue Service has expanded a program aimed at curtailing identity theft from nine states to the entire country. The program is designed to help law enforcement officials obtain tax return data needed in investigating and prosecuting specific cases of Identity theft.The program was started a year ago in Florida and expanded to Alabama, California, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas in October. Under the program, theft victims can complete a special IRS disclosure form to allow the IRS to provide law enforcement with copies of fraudulently filed tax returns. Law enforcement officials must contact victims to obtained consent for obtaining records.
More than 1,560 waiver requests have been received from more than 100 state and local law enforcement agencies in the nine states participating in the pilot of the Law Enforcement Assistance Program. More than 670 criminal ID theft investigations have been opened since October.
Since the beginning of 2013, the IRS said it has resolved and closed more than 200,000 cases of identity theft. The program has operated along with an expanded pilot of the Identity Protection PIN, which is designed to protect those who have been victims of ID theft. More than 777,000 IP PINs had been issued to victims by the start of the current tax season.