TFA | Identity Theft

Tax and Financial Considerations

Sidney Kess, JD, LLM, CPA, James R. Grimaldi, CPA, and James A.J. Revels, CPA

Identity theft continues to be a serious issue for individuals and businesses. According to Javelin Research's 2016 Identity Theft Study, $15 billion was stolen from 13.1 million individuals in 2015 (Al Pascual, Kyle Marchini, and Sarah Miller, “2016 Identity Fraud: Fraud Hits an Inflection Point,” Feb. 2, 2016, http://bit.ly/2fWJgco). For businesses, data breaches can compromise customers, clients, and employees; furthermore, it has been estimated that 90% of data breaches impact small businesses (“Small Businesses: The Cost of a Data Breach is Higher than You Think,” First Data Market Corporation, http://bit.ly/2gQCl1Z). In light of these statistics, it is essential for CPAs to address the financial and tax issues related to individual identity theft as well as compromised business data that can translate into identity theft for customers, clients, and employees.