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AGENDA
POWER POINTS
AGENDA
POWER POINTS
POWER POINTS
Tax ID Theft
As technology grows more powerful, tax fraud is becoming more prevalent.
TAX SEASON IS
now over for most income-tax payers, but for crafty, clandestine crimi- nals, it’s still a good time to shoot for easy money. As more and more of us file taxes online and our information is sent around the Internet, we are increasingly vulnerable to masters of fraud who can steal our identities and reap the benefits.
In 2012, 1.5 million fraudulent tax returns claiming $5.2 million
in refunds were filed, according to a July 2012 report from the Treasury Inspector General for
Tax Administration. Additionaly, the IRS detected nearly 940,000 tax returns for the 2011 processing year that con- tained some aspects of identity theft, up from the 49,000 detected just two years earlier. It’s a new twist on an old con—pos- ing as someone else.
“Identity theft has been around probably for as long as there has been mail,” says John Gethins, manager at the Elmsford office of Jackson Hewitt Tax Service.“People would rummage through people’s trash, steal their names, steal their Social Security numbers. They can then file fraudulent
tax returns in other peo- ple’s names. I think that everybody’s seen a much bigger increase in identity theft since the start of elec- tronic filing.”
Technology may have made filing taxes easier, but in some ways it has also simplified the jobs
of criminals, as well as their chances of getting away with their crimes. After stealing a person’s name and Social Security number, identity thieves can create bogus W-2 forms and request huge withholdings, yielding big returns.Victims of tax identity theft find out about the fraud when the IRS automatically rejects their filings because their names and Social Security numbers have already been used. The victims then have to “go through a lot of hoops with the IRS” to prove that their identities were stolen, says Stephen Ganns, co- owner of the Jackson Hewitt office. It can take six months for the real taxpayers to finally get their refunds, Gethins says. The IRS tries to pre- vent taxpayers from being victims a second time by issuing them security PIN numbers that they use on their future tax returns. If someone tries to use those
taxpayers’ information again, the lack of a secu- rity number will be a red flag and let the IRS know that something is wrong.
Though the govern- ment’s numbers on tax fraud are alarming, the practice may not have reached problematic pro- portions. Ganns says that, even with e-filing prolifer- ating, he has only had one client who was a victim of tax fraud in recent years. Still, the threat is there. Taxpayers, experts say, can help prevent fraud by keeping their passwords on a piece of paper or in their minds, not on their computers. Ganns stresses the importance of creat- ing difficult passwords, such as a sentence that you can easily remember, or even a sentence writ- ten backward. In addition, people who file their taxes on their own should do
so from secure locations. Your neighbor’s WiFi, for instance, doesn’t “have the encryption that a pro- fessional operation would have,” Gethins says. “Make sure you’re not using computers on public sites where there’s no pro- tection. People make the mistake of going into the local Starbucks to do their banking.”
—MS
16
Q2 2013
Gratitude is Great
With her vision of “grateful” leaders, this New Rochelle-bred author has big plans for improving work environments.
In 2006, after feeling
what she says was frustra-
tion about people being
shocked about being
acknowledged, New Rochelle native Judith Umlas authored her first book about the importance
of being grateful. This January, the 65-year-old corporate trainer, and senior vice president at consulting/training firm International Institute for Learning took her message directly to corporate leaders in her second book, Grateful Leadership: Using the Power of Acknowledgment to Engage All Your People and Achieve Superior Results. Here, Umlas provides an inside peek at her book.
WHEN DID YOUR INTEREST IN GRATITUDE BEGIN? In 2004, my husband started writing
me biweekly acknowledgement letters. He first started writing because I was having a really bad day, and he asked how he could make it bet-
ter. I said, ‘Write me a love letter.’ Ten minutes later, I had this amazing letter full of acknowl- edgements. That was my “aha” moment. Two years later, I wrote my first book, The Power of Acknowledgment. It was for everybody—teachers and mothers and fathers and kids. But this new book, Grateful Leadership, is really just for busi- ness people.
WHAT IS GRATEFUL LEADERSHIP? It is about expressing appreciation and gratitude to build stronger relationships, neutralize jealousy and envy, produce great results, and even improve your health.
HOW CAN SOMEONE BECOME A MORE “GRATEFUL” LEADER? I have what I call the ‘Five Cs.’ The first is consciousness. You first have to become aware of the gratitude and ac- knowledgements that are present. The second is choice—making the choice to express gratitude. The third is courage, because it does take cour- age to express heartfelt gratitude. The fourth C is communication, and the fifth C is commitment.
CAN YOU GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF THE RESULTS OF SOMEONE IMPLEMENTING YOUR STRATE- GIES? I have gotten so many stories from people reporting excitement, enthusiasm, brightness, aliveness, and sense of well-being.
EVER TRAINED ANY BIG-NAME CLIENTS? I’ve trained more than 20,000 managers, many who have been well-known executives, but the US Army is my most meaningful client. I’ve been asked to develop a pilot program to prevent suicide, which is just haunting all branches of the military. I’m piloting this program at Fort Drum, New York.
—Ali Jackson-Jolley