Minnesota Quits Accepting TurboTax Returns Amid Fraud Problems
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Minnesota officials are no longer accepting tax returns that were filed by a popular tax preparation program due to the potential for fraudulent activity.
Officials with Minnesota’s Revenue Department made the important announcement that it would no longer accept TurboTax returns after two taxpayers said they had logged into the program, only to learn they had allegedly filed their returns. State officials said because it’s an indicator of fraud, they are blocking these types of returns. They are also looking at the couple thousand returns that were filed with TurboTax already.
Revenue Commissioner Cynthia Bauerly said if we see an issue, we’ll get in touch with the taxpayer.
State tax officials in Utah said it found about 30 cases of deceitful filings from third-party vendors, with some taxpayers there saying they logged into TurboTax to file and found that returns had already been filed for “them”.
18 other states are reporting similar issues.
Intuit, based in Mountain View, Calif, will have a dedicated phone number – 1-800-944-8596 – starting on Friday at 8 a.m. for people who are concerned about the issue.
Revenue Department officials in Minnesota said they, along with TurboTax are looking into the issue and working tirelessly to identify the issue. The state will still take returns that were filed with Intuit professional preparer products like Intuit Tax Online and ProSeries.
Bauerly said the agency’s systems were not breached and it’s got a powerful fraud protection system. She said her department has been in touch with Intuit and asked for information about their security solutions along with any other issue they have learned and answers to those issues.
Many taxpayers that use TurboTax may have to change how they file their 2014 income tax returns. TurboTax has roughly 60 to 65 percent of the market or 30 million customers around the U.S.
Revenue officials said the 2013 issues that TurboTax had are not the same as the ones being dealt with today. In 2013, mistakes were made in the tax program’s software.
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