Identity Theft Affects Businesses During Tax Time Too!

Document shredding services helps prevent business identity theft.

There are not many businesses today that don’t need to use personal information such as names, addresses, credit card information, phone numbers, account numbers, Social Security numbers and medical records for their customers, employees or patients. If any of this information gets into the wrong hands it could result in identity theft which could also lead to penalties and fines, not to mention the loss in customer confidence and goodwill.

Businesses are being targeted more than ever by professional thieves, to steal personal information for creating fraudulent accounts in which fraudulent tax returns are filed for refunds.

The Internal Revenue Service has reported noticeable increases in fraudulent forms being filed such as 1120, 1120S and 1041 as well as Schedule K-1. Identity thieves’ knowledge of the tax code and how to file for particular industries is growing in effectiveness.

Even though the IRS is making great strides to protect businesses, each company needs to make every effort to safeguard the confidential information in their possession.

How to Recognize Identity Theft During Tax Season

Here are some signs that may mean your business has become a victim of identity theft:

• After filing a return or extension, the IRS sends you correspondence that they have rejected the return or request because a return has already been filed under that federal ID number.
• You receive a refund for a tax return not yet filed.
• A correspondence to the IRS goes unanswered; this could mean an identity thief has changed the address on record.
• You receive bills or correspondence for a tax year that has not been filed yet.

Document Shredding Services Can Help

Even with today’s technology, paper documents are still a major source of information for identity thieves.  To prevent this you should have a shred everything policy at your company to ensure that no documents ever go into the regular trash. To accomplish this you need to hire a professional document destruction service. They will provide you with either security bins or consoles to dispose of your documents in, instead of trash baskets.  This company will come and empty and destroy the documents that have been deposited on a regular schedule.   Make sure the schedule is consistent such as weekly or monthly, and that your staff is aware of when they will be coming to shred the papers; it will be much more effective this way.

Time Shred Services is a local onsite shredding service that provides document destruction to the businesses and residents located in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Queens, Nassau County, Suffolk County, Westchester and New Jersey.  For more information give us a call or visit www.timeshred.com.