Here at Howard, Moore & McDuffie, PC. we love to celebrate anniversaries.

As it has done for several years now, the IRS issued an updated list of “Dirty Dozen” tax scams for 2019. For the third year in a row one of the biggest scams is phishing attempts. Phone scams also figure prominently, with criminals making threatening phone calls to innocent taxpayers.

Here are the 2019 Dirty Dozen:

The Minnesota Society of CPAs has a list of real questions clients have asked MNCPA members. These will not only educate, but also show there’s truly no such thing as a silly tax question.

The IRS is expanding to seven additional states its voluntary program for taxpayers who wish to obtain identity protection personal identification numbers (IP PINs) and are not currently victims of tax return identity theft. The pilot program originally involved Washington, D.C., Florida, and Georgia. IP PINs will now be available in seven more states: California, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, and Rhode Island. Those states report the highest number of identity thefts to the Federal Trade Commission.

The partial government shutdown ended on Friday, allowing the full IRS workforce to return to work on Monday, Jan. 28 — the start of tax filing season for individuals. The Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019, H.J. Res. 28, passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump on Friday, funds the agency until Feb. 15.