The IRS announced yesterday that criminals had used the “get transcript” application on its website to gain access to the tax information of approximately 100,000 taxpayers.  The IRS has temporarily shutdown this application as it strengthens the security for the application.  The IRS press release on this breach can be found here.

This recent announcement underscores the prevalence of tax fraud.  If you have not already done so, I strongly encourage you to apply for an IPPIN to protect yourself from being a victim of tax fraud.  My recent post describing the IPPIN application process can be found here.