HERMITAGE – A Hermitage accounting and tax preparation firm said it’s investigating an “unauthorized individual’’ attempting to file bogus tax returns for some of its clients.
Reed & Dailey Associates said in a statement it saw a pattern with some of its clients’ e-filed tax returns being rejected as duplicates by the IRS, starting about Feb. 21. This tactic usually involves someone using a taxpayer’s personal information and filing under their name before a real return is filed.
“It is not known for certain whether the unauthorized individual filing the returns acquired information from our systems or if the information was obtained elsewhere,’’ the company said. “There are many parties involved in data systems-like software vendors, firewall providers, IT firms, anti-virus providers, and transmission entities.’’
Along with informing clients, Reed said it immediately notified the IRS of the situation as required by regulations and is working with the agency to resolve outstanding client issues. The FBI also has been notified.
To date no “bad guys’’ have been identified, the company said.
While declining to say how many of its clients are affected, Reed & Dailey officials said they are being given guidance based on IRS recommendations. Further, the company has hired cyber…
