I am so sorry this is happening to you. As we discussed on the phone, your tax return was e-filed and we received a rejection notice from the IRS saying your return had already been filed therefore we suspect that you may be a victim of identity theft. What do you do next?

On our side, we will prepare your return to be filed using the traditional United States Postal Service. Our administrative staff will be arranging delivery procedures with you. Both of you will need to sign the return and mail it to the IRS as soon as you receive it.

There will be additional forms with your return: Form 8948, which explains why the return is being paper filed not e-filed and Form 14039, for each of you, which will need to be signed and sent with the return.

Now for your side, the next steps are not fun and are time consuming. Identity theft isn’t just your identity being stolen, but your time. The Form 14039 alerts the IRS that your identity has been stolen and they start an investigation. The investigation will take at least 180 days. You may hear from the ADKF Tax Controversy Department members during this time.

It is highly recommended that you contact one of the three major credit bureaus and put a “fraud alert” on your account. You may also want to request your credit report in order to verify you have not been a victim of any other credit fraud.

Below is the IRS website with all the resources you will need.

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/taxpayer-guide-to-identity-theft

Again, I am sorry this is happening to you. If you need assistance with anything, please let us know how we can help.