The IRS electronically transmitted 1,500 Economic Stimulus Payments (ESPs) with Social Security numbers to the wrong bank accounts. About 250 of these have been returned by banks. The service is still trying to track the remaining 1,250 erroneously deposited payments.
In another foul up, the first pages of 22,000 ESP calculation notices were mailed out with the correct recipients’ Social Security number printed on them. The second page of the two-page notice contained tax information and truncated Social Security numbers of other taxpayers.
Despite having increased the risk of identity theft for thousands of people, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson described these errors as “minor glitches” in her testimony to Congress last month. (more…)
