Five Red Flags That Your TaxPro Is Not Serious About Security

Every year since 2015 the IRS Security Summit has held a campaign to raise awareness among taxpayers and tax practitioners of the most common threats to information security. The 2021 campaign just ended and featured information on protecting taxpayers and tax practices from pandemic-related tax scams, protecting tax data at home and at work (including remote work), helping taxpayers and tax professionals avoid e-mail-based phishing campaigns, and the always popular recognizing and preventing identity theft. None of these issues are new. Possibly because they are merely the symptoms of a much more serious disease.

Preparing tax returns is only one part of running a successful tax practice. Protecting client data is an equally important part of the job. Nevertheless many tax practitioners see maintaining information security as simply another…