The state tax commissioner says the Ohio Department of Taxation will keep using a controversial "identity quiz" to verify information about people seeking refunds. Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler reports.
Tax commissioner Joe Testa says there were 65,000 fake tax returns claiming $276 million in fraudulent refunds last year, and Testa says this year’s numbers could top that. So Testa says the state’s web-based identity quiz will stay, in spite of complaints from people who say they’re having trouble coming up with the answers on past tax issues that the quiz demands.
“We’ve provided a lot of opportunities for people to do that. They shouldn’t be frightened by it.”
Testa says filers who get letters from the state have two tries at the quiz, and then can get help mailing in proof of identity. And Testa says 98% of those who take the quiz pass it, which he says means the system is doing its job of rooting out fake filers.
