Audit----what To Expect?

[SueBaby]

About 2 years ago in late Jan our church financial secretary called to say that someone from IRS had called asking for a fax copy of a just-issued W-2 for one of the Day Care employees. They had left a phone number so I called them back.

The woman I spoke with said she was working on an E-filing fraud project and demanded that we fax a copy of the W-2. I replied that her call seemed reasonable and that we wanted to cooperate if the request was legitimate, but before I'd release any info I needed a written request or else a personal visit from someone with proper ID.

She called back two days later, still demanding the info. This time I refused to fax it and explained that in the intervening period there had been sufficient time for a letter to reach us, so we were declining to cooperate unless we had proper documentation. I wasn't interested in interfering with a legitimate investigation, but there was no way I was going to fax somebody's W-2 to anyone until I had something in my posession that I felt would protect me
We never heard anything else from them and I've always wondered what that was all about. Maybe they wanted to compare the paper copy to an e-filed return, maybe they got sufficient info from another employer to complete their project, or maybe it was all a scam. In any case it was wierd.

Yes, I did call the IRS and yes they did say they do NOT work that way. I called the client and told her to call them about what was said. Thank goodness she did not spill her guts and tell all or even her SS#. I knew that sound fishy within 10 days of transmitted.

[bertrans]

About 2 years ago in late Jan our church financial secretary called to say that someone from IRS had called asking for a fax copy of a just-issued W-2 for one of the Day Care employees. They had left a phone number so I called them back.

The woman I spoke with said she was working on an E-filing fraud project and demanded that we fax a copy of the W-2. I replied that her call seemed reasonable and that we wanted to cooperate if the request was legitimate, but before I'd release any info I needed a written request or else a personal visit from someone with proper ID.

She called back two days later, still demanding the info. This time I refused to fax it and explained that in the intervening period there had been sufficient time for a letter to reach us, so we were declining to cooperate unless we had proper documentation. I wasn't interested in interfering with a legitimate investigation, but there was no way I was going to fax somebody's W-2 to anyone until I had something in my posession that I felt would protect me.

We never heard anything else from them and I've always wondered what that was all about. Maybe they wanted to compare the paper copy to an e-filed return, maybe they got sufficient info from another employer to complete their project, or maybe it was all a scam. In any case it was wierd.

It sounds like a scam, pure and simple - or, very simple, but not at all pure. The IRS does not, in my experience, operate that way; and were it to be a criminal investigation, the demand for documents would be accompanied by a subpoena.