The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Security Summit partners, a public-private partnership protecting taxpayers and the tax system against identity theft refund fraud, recently issued a consumer alert warning Americans about bad tax advice on social media that fools people into filing inaccurate tax returns.
“The growth of bad tax advice on social media continues to grow, luring unsuspecting taxpayers into filing bad tax returns,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said. “We urge people to do some research before falling for these scams. Finding a trusted tax professional or visiting IRS.gov is a better way to research a tax issue than relying on someone talking in their car or their kitchen about a non-existent tax hack.”
Social media scams include:
There is no Self Employment Tax Credit, but scammers are scammers are advising taxpayers, especially the self-employed and gig economy workers, to filed for up to $32,000 using Form 7202, Credits for Sick Leave and Family Leave for Certain Self-Employed Individuals, to improperly claim the credit on their income. In addition, this credit is not available for the self-employed for 2023 or 2024.
Most individual taxpayers do not qualify for the Fuel Tax Credit, yet scammers are advising ineligible taxpayers to claim it and charging them a fee.