Stolen Identity Refund Fraud Prevention Act of 2017

Stolen Identity Refund Fraud Prevention Act of 2017

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to require the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to take several actions to prevent and respond to tax-related identity theft and tax fraud.

Treasury or the IRS must:

• establish a centralized point of contact for identify theft victims;
• provide notifications, instructions, and forms to suspected victims of identity theft;
• provide various reports to Congress regarding identity theft, tax refund fraud, and related prevention programs;
• use information available from the Do Not Pay Initiative established by the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012 to help prevent identity theft tax refund fraud;
• establish an information sharing and analysis center to centralize, standardize, and enhance data compilation and analysis to facilitate sharing actionable data and information with respect to identity theft;
• establish within the IRS Criminal Investigation Division the position of Local Law Enforcement Liaison to interact with state and local law enforcement authorities with respect to tax-related identity theft; and
• provide specified identity theft prevention information to taxpayers who are on hold during a taxpayer service telephone call.

The Inspector General for Tax Administration must report to Congress regarding identity theft phone scams under which individuals attempt to obtain personal information over the phone from taxpayers by falsely claiming to be calling from or on behalf of the IRS.

No additional funds are authorized to carry out this bill.