IRS Warns about Fake Tax Notice Scam

IRS Warns Taxpayers and Practitioners of Fraudulent CP2000 Notices

In a recent news release, the IRS alerted taxpayers and tax pracitioners to an email scam involving fraudulent CP2000 notices for the 2015 tax year.  The notices, which are attached to the email and appear to be issued from an Austin, Texas address, relate to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and request that checks be made out to “I.R.S” (Editors Note: A real CP2000 notice is sent through the U.S. Postal Service and directs taxpayers to amek out checks to “United States Treasury.”)  The IRS reminds taxpayers that it doesn’t initiate contact by email or through social media platforms.  To determine if a CP2000 Notice is real or not, see the IRS web page, Understanding Your CP2000 Notice, which includes an image of a real notice.  Individuals receiving this scam should forward it to phishing@irs.gov and delete it from their account.  Taxpayers and tax professionals generally can do a keyword search on IRS.gov for any notice they receive. Taxpayers who receive a notice or letter can view explanations and images of common correspondence on IRS.gov at Understanding Your IRS Notice or Letter.