On Thursday, Governor Christie signed into law Assembly Bill 3027, a measure addressing tax-identity fraud that was sponsored by Assemblyman Jay Webber, Verona’s representative to the state legislature.
“This legislation combats fraud against innocent taxpayers and protects public funds from fraudulent payouts to wrongdoers,” Assemblyman Webber said in a prepared statement. “This is a bipartisan effort that will partner professional fraud fighters with government enforcement agencies to stop criminals from preying on taxpayers and public dollars.”
This policy will allow the NJ Division of Taxation to collaborate with private fraud-prevention experts to combat tax fraud. In these schemes, taxpayers’ identities are stolen and tax returns submitted in their name that request refunds. Last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey arrested 14 people on charges of operating an identity-theft ring that filed thousands of fraudulent federal income tax returns to claim $65 million in illegal refunds.
With the passage of this bill, the NJ Division of Taxation could work with experts in fraud prevention to match the tax information against data compiled across the nation and verify the true identity of a tax filer — and then either speed the payment of legitimate returns filed by citizens or prevent the payment of false and fraudulent ones.
