A report issued on June 22 by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) stated that IRS processes are not sufficient to identify all employment identity theft victims. Many of these identify thefts result from illegal aliens stealing other taxpayers' Social Security numbers.However, the IRS said that federal law prevents it from notifying taxpayers whose identities were stolen, and that, furthermore, its job is to collect taxes, not enforce immigration laws.
A press release posted by the TIGTA’s director of communications explained that employment-related identity theft occurs when an identity thief uses another person’s identity to gain employment. The statement went on to explain:
Taxpayers may first realize they are victims when they receive an IRS notice of a discrepancy in the income they reported on their tax return. Each year, the IRS receives about 2.4 million tax ...
