SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah State Tax Commission confirmed to FOX 13 that TurboTax is “a common thread” in a series of attempts to file fraudulent tax returns using people’s personal information.
As many as 8,000 returns have been flagged for potential fraud, the tax commission said in a statement. As of Friday, only 28 had been identified as fraudulent.
“The fraudulent filings originate from data compromised through a third-party commercial tax preparation software process and were detected through the Tax Commission’s fraud detection systems. All information in the State’s tax computer system remains secure and has not been compromised,” the commission said in a statement.
A spokesman for the agency told FOX 13 that TurboTax was the common link, following a pattern across the nation. The Utah State Tax Commission said 18 other states have reported similar fraud attempts.
“Our systems have not been compromised but we feel it is our responsibility to alert taxpayers who have potentially had their personal information compromised by a third-party tax preparation service, so they can take the necessary steps to protect themselves,” said State Tax Commissioner John Valentine.
In a statement on Thursday,Intuit (which owns TurboTax) said that it was “temporarily pausing its transmission of state e-filing tax returns.”
“Intuit will be working with the states today to begin turning transmissions back on. Customers who have already filed their state tax returns using Intuit software during this temporary pause will have their returns transmitted as soon as possible. They do not need to take further action at this time,” the statement said.
The issue does not affect federal tax returns.
