The IRS said this week collected data will help it determine if a return is a legitimate filing. The agency listed several questions preparers may be asked when filing their business, trust or estate client returns.

These include the following:

*The name and Social Security number of the company individual authorized to sign the business return. Is the person signing the return authorized?
*Payment history: Were estimated tax payments made? When were they made and how were they made and how much was paid?
*Parent company information: Identity of parent companies, if any.
*Additional information based on deductions claimed.
*Filing history: Has the business filed Form(s) 940, 941 or other business-related tax forms?

To help businesses and business return preparers, the IRS has created a new Identity Theft Guide for Business, Partnerships and Estate and Trusts.

Meanwhile, the IRS outlined improvements it has seen in the anti-theft effort. There were 883,000 confirmed ID theft returns in 2016, a 37-percent drop from 2015 and the agency stopped 443,000 returns in the first eight months of 2017, a 30-percent drop from the same period in 2016.

Financial firms also significantly improved their ability to stop suspect refunds. They blocked 124,000 suspect refunds in 2016, a 50-percent decline from 2015. One hundred twenty-seven thousand have been stopped so far this year, partly reflecting what the IRS described as a handful of cases involving several thousand accounts.

The number of reported ID theft victims fell, declining to 376,000 in 2016, off 46 percent from 699,000 reported for 2015. The IRS says the trend has continued as through against, the totals had dropped by 40 percent to 189,000 for the year-to-date over the same period last year.