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Originally Posted by spinner1001
If you don’t know that tax preparer well or the person is not associated with a reputable organization, you might be a victim of fraud. The scam could be your tax preparer intentionally has your tax refund check sent to a mailing address where a scammer picks up the check and cashes it. If all of this is indeed a scam, identity theft is also a possibility, This is speculation without more information from you.
If you have no strong evidence of a scam and your refund is substantial, you might get professional help from a reputable tax preparer such as a CPA to possibly help guide you through the process.
Unless you have evidence of your tax preparer’s willful intent rather than a mistake, I am doubtful that you could get law enforcement very interested to investigate.
Below is some information about tax scams you might want to read:
What Is Stolen Identity Refund Fraud? - TurboTax Tax Tips & Videos
Fraudulent Tax Returns and Refunds – United States Postal Inspection Service.
Stolen Tax Refund Check? Here’s How To Get Your Money Back |
The company that did it is a well known non-profit nationwide organization. The person that did our taxes did them the year before with no problems. He said he does this for veterans, my husband is a veteran. I don't believe there was ill intent but they were sloppy, irresponsible and just didn't care.
Thank you for your advice about contacting a CPA. I called our CPA who did our taxes when different part of FL. He didn't want to be involved. H&R Block helped by guiding me to irs.gov. That is where I discovered that the check, along with our tax info was sent to our old address. It wasn't forwarded to us even though we had forwarded our mail. It's unbelievable. The tax preparer had time to fix it but refused. I changed our address with the IRS as soon as I realized the tax preparers mistake, hoping it would help but it didn't. I filled out paperwork for the IRS for a lost refund and there has been no response. I'll do it again in hopes of someone helping.
Thanks again for taking your time to offer advice. I appreciate it.