By Abbey Doyle
The Herald Bulletin
ANDERSON, Ind. —
Partially burnt tax documents revealing Social Security numbers, incomes, names and addresses were found scattered behind an Anderson tax preparer’s office both Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.
Two employees inside Instant Tax Service, 3735 Madison Ave., denied having any knowledge of documents being burnt outside their building. A pile of obviously burnt documents laid just outside the company’s back door. There was a dark, black burn mark on the pavement outside of the door, and there were pieces of burnt documents throughout the alleyway.
“We have a paper shredder,” one employee said. “Why would we burn documents?”
When asked if someone could comment for the paper, one of the employees said the manager would call The Herald Bulletin. The reporter never received a call from anyone at Instant Tax Service.
A look through papers found in the alley revealed copies of W-2 forms, complete with total wages, employer names and addresses, and the employees’ full names, addresses and Social Security numbers; old phone bills with amounts owed and other identifying information; loan documents; and entire state return and several unidentified pieces of tax documents.
An employee of the Pizza King next door to the tax preparer’s office said they noticed the papers being burned in the alleyway behind the shopping center that the two companies are in.
If Instant Tax did burn documents in the alley, Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings said that the only law he could find that the business would have violated would be littering.
Arson wouldn’t apply because there is no monetary value to the documents; identity deception would involve the company having the identifying information without authorization.
“It is very irresponsible to manage or handle others’ valuable personal identification information in that way,” Cummings said. “If personal information is being disseminated and getting out, if members of the community were able to get it, it can put anyone at risk to have their identity stolen.”
Although there may be no criminal implications, he said there could be civil liability on the part of the company if they were responsible for allowing someone’s identity to be stolen due to their reckless handling of the personal information.
Anderson police Detective Mitch Carroll, like Cummings, said there didn’t appear to be any criminal violation. He said the company could be violating a regulation for tax preparers though.
Internal Revenue Service Spokesman Luis D. Garcia said the IRS has no oversight over third-party tax preparers like Instant Tax Services.
“We don’t have any control over what happens between taxpayers and third parties,” he said. “We are very, very strict about protecting taxpayers information when we get it. Unfortunately when taxpayers hand their documents to another party we have no control over what happens.”
Garcia said anyone who feels they may be the victim of an abusive tax return preparer or if the suspect fraud the person should contact the IRS. The tax payer can fill out form 3949-A found on IRS’s website.
Attempts by The Herald Bulletin to contact the people whose identifying information was found in the alley were unsuccessful.
Contact Abbey Doyle, 640-4805, abbey.doyle@heraldbulletin.com.
