Login | April 02, 2026
A New Way to Report Tax Fraud to the IRS
Discerning Investor
Published: April 2, 2026
Have you received suspicious emails, letters or phone calls from "the IRS"? Or, worse, have you actually been a victim of a tax scam or fraud?
The IRS is asking you to inform the federal government tax agency using a new service available as of Feb. 26. The service is on the IRS.gov website; look for the "Report Fraud" button.
When you click on the button, you are directed to a page that has four main categories: "Tax fraud or scam," "Fake IRS email or message," "Identity theft" and "Tax return preparer."
The website will give you the option of reporting anonymously or as a whistleblower claim.
The IRS Whistleblower Office administers claims from people who report "specific, timely and credible information about noncompliance with tax laws or other laws the IRS is authorized to administer, enforce or investigate." It also pays awards "to eligible individuals whose information is used by the IRS." The award amount is 15% to 30% of the proceeds collected (tinyurl.com/4vkztwx2).
The prompt for tax fraud will ask what type you are reporting, ranging from a person or business that may have committed tax fraud or evasion to cryptocurrency or money laundering to you having been scammed or targeted in a tax scheme.
As an example, if you pick the option that you have been scammed, and you decide not to put in a whistleblower claim, you will be asked to report your information using Form 14242, "Report Suspected Abusive Tax Promotions or Preparer." You will answer a number of pre-screening questions that will determine what type of fraud was perpetrated. You also might be redirected to a different form that more accurately addresses your situation.
If you decide that you do want to put in a whistleblower claim, you'll be asked a series of questions, including "Are you willing to provide information about yourself and sign under penalty of perjury?" If you qualify, you'll be directed to Form 211, "Application for Award for Original Information."
For a fake IRS email or message, the IRS provides different categories (email, text message, phone, social media, etc.). The section for email involves various categories, all of which include reporting the email to phishing@IRS.gov.
If you received an IRS-related phone call, a link will take you to the webpage "How to know it's the IRS" (tinyurl.com/3aneyhyk).
The identity theft category offers guides and links related to how to prevent and report ID theft.
A data breach can lead to tax fraud, but not always. The IRS webpage "Data breach of your personally identifiable information" states: "Not every data breach will result in identity theft, and not every identity theft is tax-related identity theft" (tinyurl.com/4z4rnnjv).
The Federal Trade Commission's IdentityTheft.gov offers guidance on how to handle a data breach. For example, in 2025, a major credit reporting bureau confirmed that a cyberattack exposed the personal data of more than 4 million Americans (tinyurl.com/mtk8netz).
If someone does file a tax return using your identity? The IRS "identifies a suspicious tax return based on hundreds of processing filters" and pulls it for review, according to the IRS webpage "When to file an Identity Theft Affidavit." The IRS will "send a letter to the taxpayer and will not process the tax return until hearing back from the taxpayer" (tinyurl.com/25zp45d2).
Additionally, any taxpayer can request an Identity Protection Personal Identification Number using the "Get an identity protection PIN (IP PIN)" tool on IRS.gov.
Take some time to familiarize yourself with the fraud-reporting options. Hopefully, you won't have to use them in the future, but if you do, you will know where to find them.
Tax fraud is likely to never go away. According to the IRS Criminal Investigation's 2025 annual report, of the $10.59 billion in identified financial crimes during the fiscal year, $4.5 billion was due to tax fraud -- an increase of 111.8% from the previous fiscal year (tinyurl.com/aj8sywk6).
Seasoned investment counsel (tinyurl.com/52nus8hz) and award-winning columnist and author, Julie Jason, JD, LLM, promotes financial literacy and investor protection. Read her latest book, "The Discerning Investor: Personal Portfolio Management in Retirement for Lawyers (and Their Clients)" (tinyurl.com/4u7h9pjs), published by the American Bar Association. Write to Julie at readers@juliejason.com. While all questions cannot be answered, each email is read and reviewed and can lead to discussion in a future column.
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