Protect Yourself from Tax Fraud

The Department of Revenue is constantly upgrading and improving its fraud management system to protect taxpayer information and tax dollars.  Over the past five years, the Department of Revenue received an average of over 5.2 million individual income tax returns on an annual basis. During this same time-period, the Department successfully blocked over $1.07 billion in fraudulently filed refund requests.

The Georgia Department of Revenue will NEVER ask you to:

• Purchase and pay debts with a prepaid debit card
• Transfer money to a specific account
• Threaten you with arrest if you do not immediately pay

How can the Georgia Tax Center help protect me from fraud?

• When you sign up for online access through the Georgia Tax Center (GTC) you can arrange to receive notifications.  You will be notified by text or email when a return is received in GTC with your social security number and also when your refund is issued.

What can I do to help protect myself?

• Use caution when opening emails that come from someone you do not know.
• Do not confirm personal information in email or over the telephone unless YOU were the one who made or requested the contact.
• If asked for your social security number, question why it is needed. It may not really be needed to do business with you.
• Protect your personal computer with firewalls, current and effective anti-virus software, and security patches or updates.
• Regularly change your passwords and use passwords that would be hard for someone else to guess.

Fraud Resources from other Agencies

• https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-central
• https://gta.georgia.gov/cyber-security-awareness-main-page
• https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/identity-theft/identity-theft-an…
• https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/feature-0014-identity-theft
• https://www.identitytheft.gov/#/