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IRS reduces wait times for some ID theft victims

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The Internal Revenue Service is making progress on whittling down the amount of time it takes to help victims of tax-related identity theft, even as the IRS warns of scammers impersonating its employees once again this tax season.

National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins provided an update on her blog Wednesday about the IRS’s delays in assisting identity theft victims. In her annual report to Congress earlier this month, she criticized the delays in helping ID theft victims, saying they had increased to nearly two years in fiscal year 2024, up from 19 months in FY 2023. But more recently the IRS appears to be making slight progress. In conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission’s Identity Theft Awareness Week, Collins posted an update on the IRS’s efforts to reduce the delays, perhaps in response to her recent report. 

In fiscal year 2022, the average processing cycle time for identity theft victim assistance cases was 399 days, which rose to an average of 556 days in FY 2023 and then worsened to an average of 676 days in FY 2024, according to Collins. So far in FY 2025, the IRS is averaging 506 days for these kinds of cases in the IRS’s Accounts Management inventory, which represents a slight improvement. 

“It is sad that a decrease to 506 days is good news, but after years of increases, it is positive to see the average IDTVA case processing cycle times going down instead of up,” Collins wrote.

In a subset of cases, the delays have been reduced to an average of 100 days for identity theft victim assistance in the Accounts Management function.

“The good news is that the IRS has been working through an initiative to reduce its IDTVA inventory backlog of over 447,000 aged cases,” Collins added. “The IRS prioritized a specific subset of approximately 45,000 IDTVA-AM cases in its backlog from prior to July 13, 2024, that reflect potential refunds for victims. So far in FY 2025, data shows the average processing cycle time for that specific subset of backlogged IDTVA cases is 515 days. Since July 13, 2024, the IRS received 5,500 more IDTVA cases that fit in the same specific subset and is averaging about 100 days to resolve the new cases. The combined average processing cycle time for aged and new cases in this specific subset is about 473 days.”

Separately, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration issued a warning Tuesday that it’s seeing scammers impersonating the IRS and texting taxpayers asking for sensitive information. 

“They’re making taxpayers think it’s to get an Economic Impact Payment,” said TIGTA in an email. “But it’s a scam to steal their personal data. Don’t take the bait. Don’t respond. Report this scam to our hotline.”

The scammers are exploiting the IRS’s widely publicized announcement last month that it will be issuing automatic payments totaling $2.4 billion to approximately 1 million eligible people who did not claim the Recovery Rebate Credit (also known as an Economic Impact Payment) on their 2021 tax returns.

“The IRS states that no action is needed by eligible taxpayers to receive these payments,” said TIGTA. “Instead, the payments will go out automatically and taxpayers should receive them by the end of this month. The payments will be automatically direct deposited or sent by paper check.”

TIGTA offered some tips for spotting a scam, pointing out that the IRS will not request personal or financial information by text, and federal government website addresses end in “.gov,” not “.com.” Scammers often make up an official-sounding website address, but those addresses typically have a “.com” extension instead of “.gov.”

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Accountants on IRS and PwC layoffs, accounting students and more

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Complimentary Access Pill

Enjoy complimentary access to top ideas and insights — selected by our editors.

This week’s stats focus in part on the job titles seeing the greatest losses at the IRS during layoffs; as well as the states that have proposed or passed alternatives to the 150-hour rule; the percentage of master’s in accounting program applicants since 2020; the number of PwC employees laid off in May; the projected size of Deloitte’s new New York City headquarters; and the amount of 2026 HSA annual contribution limits, depending on coverage.

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CrowdStrike says DOJ, SEC sent inquiries on firm accounting

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CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. said U.S. officials have asked for information related to the accounting of deals it’s made with some customers and said the cybersecurity firm is cooperating with the inquiry.

The Austin, Texas-based company said in a filing Wednesday that it has gotten “requests for information” from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission “relating to the company’s recognition of revenue and reporting of ARR for transactions with certain customers.” ARR refers to annual recurring revenue, a measure of earnings from subscriptions.

The company said the federal officials have also sought information related to a CrowdStrike update last year that crashed Windows operating systems around the world.

“The company is cooperating and providing information in response to these requests,” the filing states.

U.S. prosecutors and regulators have been investigating a $32 million deal between CrowdStrike and a technology distributor, Carahsoft Technology Corp., to provide cybersecurity tools to the Internal Revenue Service, Bloomberg News first reported in February. The IRS never purchased or received the products, Bloomberg News earlier reported.

The investigators are probing what senior CrowdStrike executives may have known about the $32 million deal and are examining other transactions made by the cybersecurity firm, Bloomberg News reported in May.

Asked for comment about the filing, CrowdStrike spokesperson Brian Merrill said, “As we have told Bloomberg repeatedly, this is old news and we stand by the accounting of the transaction.” 

A lawyer for Carahsoft previously declined to comment on the federal investigations, and representatives didn’t respond to subsequent requests for comment about them.

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Elon Musk urges Americans take action to ‘kill’ Trump tax cut bill

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Tech titan Elon Musk ratcheted up his offensive against Donald Trump’s signature tax bill on Wednesday, urging that Americans contact their lawmakers to “KILL” the legislation.

“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman,” Musk wrote in a social media post. “Bankrupting America is NOT ok!”

The post came one day after Musk lashed out at the tax bill, describing it as a budget-busting “disgusting abomination” as Republican fiscal hawks stepped up criticism of the massive fiscal package. 

Trump hasn’t publicly responded to Musk’s comments, but the White House put out a statement Wednesday saying the legislation “unleashes an era of unprecedented economic growth.” 

And House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Musk is “dead wrong” about the bill and that the tax cuts will pay for themselves through economic growth.

Musk’s public condemnation pits him against the president at a critical time as Trump is personally lobbying holdouts on the bill. His campaign against the legislation threatens to stiffen resistance and delay enactment of the tax cuts and debt ceiling increase. 

Musk has attacked the legislation days after leaving a temporary assignment leading the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative to cut federal spending. The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer’s high-profile role in the Trump administration eroded his business brand and sales of his company’s electric vehicles plunged. 

The House-passed version of the tax and spending bill would add $2.4 trillion to U.S. budget deficits over the next decade, according to an estimate released Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO’s calculation reflects a $3.67 trillion decrease in expected revenues and a $1.25 trillion decline in spending over the decade through 2034, relative to baseline projections. The score doesn’t account for any potential boost to the economy from the bill, which Johnson and Trump argue would offset the revenue losses. 

Musk, the world’s richest man with a net worth of about $377 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has become a crucial financial backer of the Republican party. After making modest donations most years, Musk became the biggest U.S. political donor in 2024, giving more than $290 million.

Johnson said Musk had promised to help reelect Republicans just a day before savaging Trump’s bill. Musk did not respond to a request for comment. 

Most of Musk’s giving was aimed at electing Trump but he also supported congressional candidates. America PAC, the super political action committee that Musk largely funded, spent $18.5 million in 17 separate House races. Though that total pales in comparison to the roughly $255 million he spent backing Trump, the spending means a lot in a congressional election, where challengers on average raise less than $1 million.

Control of the House will likely be decided by the outcome of fewer than two dozen close races in the 2026 midterm elections. The GOP’s chances of holding their majority would suffer a major blow if Musk were to withdraw his financial support.

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