Concern that IRS CI Resources Are Disprorportionately Allocated to Tax Return Identity Theft Fraud (10/31/14)

Readers will have noticed that I have not spent many words on this blog about identity theft.   Most of the times the term shows up in a blog focused on another issue.   As I have said, identity theft is just a form of relatively garden-variety fraud and theft which is related to tax only because tax forms -- usually claims for refund -- are used to implement the theft.   I picked up the following quote from an article on the 30th annual Tax Controversy Institute in Beverly Hills, California.  William R. Davis, Identity Theft Focus Hindering CI Division, Former Officials Say, 2014 TNT 211-1 (10/31/14) [no link available].  The article noted concerns by the agency and practitioners on IRS CI's devotion of inordinate resources to identity theft because the IRS still must serve effectively its mission to support the overall tax system.

I thought the following excerpt from the article was particularly apropos.

The only thing IRS-related about identity theft is that it involves a tax return, Nathan J. Hochman of Bingham McCutchen LLP said, adding, "Other than that, it's an FBI case."