IRS Warning: Avoid These 2 Major Tax Scams!

The IRS has started accepting tax return filings on January 23 and will continue to do so until the April 18 deadline, with the agency expecting more than 168 million individual tax returns to be filed.

The Internal Revenue Service has hired more than 5,000 new telephone assistors and added more in-person staff to help support taxpayers as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, according to the agency's website.

Amid the tax filing season, many are taking advantage of the complexity of filing your tax returns, which prompted the IRS to issue a warning to its taxpayers.

Acting IRS Commissioner Doug O'Donnell noted that the IRS is seeing signs that one particular scam is increasing. O'Donnell said that it worries them that innocent taxpayers are being tempted into "falling into a trap" that would impose financial risks and criminal penalties on them.

IRS Tax Scams

One of the reported IRS tax scams includes encouraging people to use tax software to manually fill out their W-2 forms and provide false income information.

Alabama Media Group noted that the scam suggests people make up a large salary and withhold from a fake employer in an effort to get a large refund, which would sometimes be as much as five figures.

O'Donnell reminded tax filers that the IRS and Security Summit partners remind people that there is "no secret way to get free money" or avail of a huge refund.

Aside from making up a fake income, another scam includes people using Form 7202, which is Credits for Sick Leave and Family Leave for Certain Self-Employed Individuals.

The credits are applicable for employees wanting to claim credits. It does not cover self-employed individuals.

In 2020 and 2021, the credits were available for self-employed tax filers.

Scams using the credits involve people making up fictional employees employed in their household and using Schedule H (Form 1040) Household Employment Taxes. They will then try to claim a refund based on false sick and family wages they never paid.

IRS Tax Season 2023

The deadline to file federal tax returns is on April 18, 2023, for most Americans as April 15 falls on a Saturday, while the next weekday, April 17, is recognized as Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C.

The IRS noted that D.C. holidays affect tax deadlines for everyone "in the same way federal holidays do," as reported by CNET.

Those serving in the military abroad may be granted additional time to file their tax returns, including those in a combat zone.

Some states also have tax deadline exceptions such as Iowa and Virginia, with a deadline on May 1.

Meanwhile, Delaware and Louisiana have a deadline set on May 2 and May 15, respectively.

California also extended the deadline for state returns, making it May 18, 2023.

States such as Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington have no state income taxes.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: IRS: Watch out for these scams - from KHOU 11