
Hacking of Tax Returns More Extensive Than First Reported, I.R.S. Says - ourmandave
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/us/politics/hacking-of-tax-returns-more-extensive-than-first-reported-irs-says.html?_r=0
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Spooky23
The congress has been starving IRS of funding to reduce their effectiveness at
tax collection. So it's not shocking that environment would create a situation
where this type of systemic failure would occur.

A guy I know worked for an IRS regional office in an enforcement/audit role
for something like 40 years. He had something like 75 co-workers in that role
in 1999 and retired with 8. Technology actually increased their workload, but
with less people, they only targeted the most egregious violations.

He stuck around because he was really passionate & dedicated to his work. He
was a guru on some very specific/arcane areas and wanted to transition it to
somebody. That never panned out, so he gave up and left when his health
declined.

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hippich
I get that quality of IRS work falls with less staff, but on the other hand -
maybe it is a good thing? May be it will force changes? While not the worst in
the world, USA tax code is... complicated. Maybe it could be simplified.

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Spooky23
There's a balance. I think for a system to work, it needs to be fair. If the
rules suck, change the rules.

But by implicitly ignoring the rules through inattention, except when you
don't, it creates a perception of corruption and arbitrary behavior.

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hippich
current system appears to work as long as you pump people into system to do
work.

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bargl
I'd really like to see a solution to how we validate ourselves to banks and
other financial institutions as it becomes apparent that Social Security
numbers are no longer an effective barrier to identifying a person. It would
be nice if we could easily change our identifier and have a service which
banks used to validate against.

Something similar to using Google to logon to certain services rather then
creating a user name and password. Then you can make a single point much more
secure and difficult to log into.

The downside of this is that I think the US government would have have an in
person verification system to get an account. I.E. you go into the DMV, get an
account and then you are connected to the service. You can then implement 2
factor authentication, and you link that service to your bank accounts.

I have no clue if this would actually be more secure then what is already in
place, but it seems more then likely that hackers already have my Social
Security number and my previous residences because of the OPM hack.

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maljx
Sweden has a system similar to what you describe. It's called BankID and is
issued by any bank. You can use it to file your taxes and sign various
documents like address change online.

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bargl
Just another reason I'd like to move to Sweden.

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jakeogh
I would like to close the IRS. Like the (current) Fed, it's spent over 100
years stealing resources (with the threat of violence) from the American
people and redistributing them to the top. The rest goes to bombing the
'enemy' of the day and bailing out their various ponzi schemes.

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cordite
And given an event like this sucking more resources out of the IRS, I guess I
and others marked to be audited (they didn't believe I existed at first?)
won't get our returns any time soon.

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bmir-alum-007
How many people will now try to file fraudulent tax returns and claim their
identity was stolen in the hack?

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hippich
That would be pretty silly thing to do and I hope no one actually act on this
idea. Hackers enjoy it because they are using "mules" providing their checking
accounts and then sending wires or western union transfers. Normal person will
get caught. While it is possible to setup perfect crime, I bet most will not
be able to and end up in jail if they try.

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bmir-alum-007
Pretty silly to take things way too seriously and hate on a decent
hypothetical gaming opportunity, don't you think?

With perfect security hygiene, more things are attainable.

But an even more perfect crime is hedging both sides of an option with phony
identities, with different amounts, different enough times, different
brokerages, different IP addresses, etc.

Feel free to try it out and report back.

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hippich
people smart enough to pull it off, i believe, can make equal or more money
doing legitimate things :) at least i want to believe they can.

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ioquatix
Wow, so who foots the bill for this one?

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JonFish85
Who do you think? Taxpayers, of course.

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danielweber
At least the victims are getting letters. Corporations are required to do it,
but governments often exempt themselves from the same employment and data
handling requirements they place on business.

