Someone else submitted a tax return for me

[Anonymous]

This same thing happened to me last spring. In my case someone created an ID.me account for me - that triggered me getting one of those form letters in the mail saying "if you did not sign up for an ID.me account, you may be the victim of identify theft, call this number" I then called the number and they were able to stop the IRS from paying out my refund to the fraudulent filer. The person on the IRS help line then told me to send my paper return to the address for people who have had someone file a return fraudulently. It is a multi-year wait to have those returns processed. In my case I had messed up my withholdings (60% of my salary is bonus) and the IRS owed me $20,000. It will likely be 3 more years (at least) until I get that money. it is pretty frustrating because I was going to invest it and so am missing out on a lot of growth. But what if I had fewer resources and needed that money to pay off some debt? A friend of mine knows a former IRS ombudsmen so I talked to that person who said that there was nothing I could really do to speed up the process. It took years before the DOGE process, I can't imagine what it is like now but I guess I will find out.

I will add that I still can't get an ID.me account so am having trouble getting a PIN system set up. The last few times I tried to call the IRS (post-DOGE) you could not even wait on hold or get a callback - it was just a recording saying to try again later.

As an aside, if anyone knows of a service that will help resolve this I would be happy to spend money for someone to figure out how I can get a PIN.

here is an article with more background

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/26/us/politics/irs-tax-refund-identity-theft.html

[Anonymous]

PP can you get login.gov?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP can you get login.gov?

Yes I have had a login.gov account for a while but had never heard of ID.me until I was hit with this identity theft. I can’t make an account, they don’t have a 1-800 number and the chat function keeps disconnecting me before I get to a person. It is super frustrating and I really don’t have the bandwidth to deal with this. I can’t believe the ITS outsourced their system to a company with such bad customer service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Issue is did they get your refund?

OP here. No refund to be had from Federal, there is simply not enough income to be taxed, so nothing to refund, as I am now retired with very low pension/SS income. There might be a small refund to be taken from the DC's Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR). I am still trying to figure that one out but it looks like I will have to file the DC 40 return by mail as well, with copies of everything I sent to the Feds *IRS*.

To another PP, the IRS is probably not "wide open" because 46% of Treasury staffers are furloughed according to Reuters:
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/who-is-still-working-who-has-been-furloughed-us-government-shutdown-2025-10-07/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP can you get login.gov?

Yes I have had a login.gov account for a while but had never heard of ID.me until I was hit with this identity theft. I can’t make an account, they don’t have a 1-800 number and the chat function keeps disconnecting me before I get to a person. It is super frustrating and I really don’t have the bandwidth to deal with this. I can’t believe the IRS outsourced their system to a company with such bad customer service.

But it will be great at tracking and auditing all YOUR "errors" and adding the appropriate penalties!