IRS Criminal Investigation Division Addresses Emerging Cybercrimes And Crypto Tax Compliance

What steps can Professional Tax Preparers follow to protect their business and client's sensitive financial data?

Our GetWise 2021 Virtual Training hosted IRS Criminal Investigation division experts Jarod Koopman - Deputy Director, Cyber and Forensic Services, and Chris Neidert - Deputy Director, Cyber and Forensic Services, to take a deep dive into emerging cybercrimes and crypto tax compliance, sharing what they are doing to help protect taxpayer data and their confidence in the tax system as they continue to combat the emerging areas of refund fraud and cybercrime.

IRS Criminal Investigation Cyber Presence

The IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) division has a dedicated point of contact in every state for Professional Tax Preparers to rely upon. Elite analysts from the Cybersecurity unit of IRS CI provide further investigative support across a wide range of tax and finance-related cybercrimes. An uptick in Crypto usage has become a point of frustration and should be called to attention if noticed when preparing a customer's return. With the emergent nature of wildly ranging cyber-related crimes, it's become critical for Professional Tax Preparers to become familiar with the tactics criminals use, in order to best protect their client's data.

New Cyber Trends and Priorities to Prepare For

Despite the ever-evolving obstacles the IRS CI division faces, the types of schemes they've encountered have thankfully remained similar, or the same. Crypto tax, illicit exchangers, unlicensed MSB's, ICO's, dark web marketplaces and vendors are continuing trends, however the complexity by which the Crypto sphere has gone to hide individual's identities have created new challenges to overcome. 

For Professional Tax Preparers, training yourselves to recognize the signs of schemes in action disguised as reputable business transactions can help to protect your business, as well as educate clients on what practices to avoid.

Security Tips For Your Tax Preparation Business

While there are a wide range of threats to your customer's information, common techniques used to compromise small-to-medium sized tax preparation businesses can include: phishing and social engineering attacks, malware attacks and hacking. In all things, remember to “trust”, but always “verify”.

Taking steps to proactively prevent security threats is one of the best forms of protection for Tax Professionals. Remember to always encrypt your data, utilize strong two-factor authentication methods, never plug an unknown USB or storage device into your computer, and to always protect your customer's data by using a secured network whenever you work on their taxes. 

Best Practices for the Modern Tax Preparer

Learn more about how you can #GoBeyond for your tax clients with essential security tips from our "Tales From the Crypto: The New Wave of Illicit Finance" webinar available here. 

Watch the on-demand webinar to take a deep dive into emerging cybercrimes and crypto tax compliance, with several of the discussed hot topics including: 

• IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) Cyber Presence
• Cybercrimes Trends, Challenges and Priorities
• Tools and Training
• Cybersecurity Threats facing Tax Preparers
• Security Best Practices & Countermeasures
• And more!

Interested in a secure cloud-based tax prep solution for Tax Professionals? Learn more about the benefits of running a Virtual Tax Office with TaxWise Online.