Johnson, Warner Introduce Social Security Data Integrity Bill
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia introduced a bill Thursday to permit the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to alert taxpayers that they have been victims of identity theft. The bill, the Social Security Identity Defense Act of 2014, addresses a cruel situation confronting people whose Social Security numbers are used by identity thieves. The IRS may discover the fraud when separate tax returns using the same Social Security number are filed, and the agency investigates to learn which taxpayer is legitimately entitled to use the number. But the IRS’ interpretation of privacy laws had led it to believe it cannot warn the defrauded taxpayer whose number has been stolen. This situation has caused years of trouble for at least one Wisconsin couple who have worked to draw media attention to the paradox of IRS’ interpretation and to the risk that interpretation poses to others similarly victimized by identity thieves. Read more…