Taxpayers are Receiving Tax Forms for Unemployment Benefits they did not Receive

Scammers have taken advantage of the huge number of new unemployment claims to slip in fraudulent claims. Taxpayers often have no warning their identity has been stolen until they receive a tax form from the unemployment office.

New York residents may be extra vulnerable because the state doesn’t mail the 1099-G tax forms. Instead, unemployment recipients must log into their unemployment account to retrieve the form electronically. Of course, taxpayers who haven’t claimed unemployment won’t know that an account was set up in their name by the scammers, and would not know the password to access it.

If you receive a 1099-G for benefits you did not receive or, after filing your return, an IRS letter for unreported benefits should contact the state agency to get a corrected 1099-G and omit any income you did not received when filing your tax return. You don’t need to wait to receive the corrected form before filing.

Read more on irs.gov.

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