Establish standards to fight tax fraud: #tellusatoday

Letter to the editor:

I applaud Paste BN's Editorial Board for confronting the issue of tax refund fraud. Millions of Americans have been victimized, and the problem is getting worse ("Tax refund thieves have unlikely enablers: Our view").

H&R Block has studied this issue since 2012, and I'm proud of the measures we had in place to protect our clients well before this tax season. But something needs to be done to protect all taxpayers. Fortunately, work that we championed is underway with the IRS to establish mandatory, industrywide standards for how tax returns using DIY software are filed. This includes identifying the filer, implementing enhanced fraud protections, and sharing information among the IRS, the states and software providers.

But tax fraud isn't just a software problem. We also need uniform national standards for paid tax preparers.

It is critical that this work with the IRS leads to industrywide standards for next tax season.

Bill Cobb, president and CEO, H&R Block; Kansas City, Mo.

Comments from Twitter are edited for clarity and grammar:

Implement three layers of protection: Require Social Security number, password and fingerprint scan, if you're filing taxes online.

— @AceCasino1

Stop using the same password everywhere; you're asking for trouble.

— @PicardDeltaOne

Identity theft is an ongoing crisis for our government and companies. No one really has a handle on how to protect us.

— @JeffOstach

For more discussions, follow @USATOpinion and #tellusatoday on Twitter.