Those tax return documents that you’re advised to keep for three to seven years in case you get audited contain lots of information identity thieves would love to get their hands on: your date of birth, your place of employment and your Social Security number. You can’t shred them and get rid of them because the IRS may come a knockin’, and, unfortunately, you can’t prevent their existence by just not paying your taxes. Well you can, but it is really not a good idea.
If you have the documents in paper form, here are some tips to follow:
• Place them all in a manila folder and put them in a locked filing cabinet or stick them in a safe deposit box.
• Get rid of any extra copies of the forms using the shredder. Keeping extras only increases the chance that they will get lost or “disappear.â€
• Make sure to secure the documents for other family members too. It’s best to put them all in the same place.
If you are one of those tech-savvy people or paper-savers that would rather save your tax forms on your computer, follow these tips instead:
• Don’t save them on a public computer. This doesn’t just mean one at the library. It also means your work machine or one that you share with roommates.
• Delete the files from the machine if you ever have to take it in for repairs.
• Erase the contents of your hard drive with professional software before selling it or destroy it.
• Call the files something besides “2009 taxes,†or anything similar, so that even if a thief gets a hold of your machine it won’t be obvious that he or she should look for this information.
• Password protect your machine, or at least your user profile, and keep your security software updated.
• Never save them using an online storage system, since these can be hacked fairly easily.
• Don’t send them to anyone through email, not even a person you’re filing jointly with. Thieves have a way of interception such information.
Not sure why secure storage is such a big issue? Try the fact that over than 313,000 identity theft complaints were filed in 2008 and that the FTC estimates 9.9 million victims in 2008. That number is expected to be even higher this year. Remember, the more information of yours that a thief has, the more damage he or she has the potential to do.
Thieves have bought cars, boats and even houses using other people’s personal information. They have also committed crimes, gotten medical treatment and planned terrorist acts. This is not something to simply shove under the rug and ignore. In fact, you may want to consider getting an identity theft protection service.
Identity thieves are not people to be dealt with lightly. They certainly will not offer you, your family and lots of other people they don’t know from Adam the same courtesy. Okay, any courtesy at all. Protect your documents and you good name from these scoundrels.