The “Dirty Dozen” is a list compiled annually by the IRS that features the most common scams used to prey on taxpayers as well as scams devised for tax evasion.

Trends indicate that taxpayers should be most wary of scams during tax season, however, they could happen at any time and people should be on the lookout all year long. Those who fall victim to these scams are subject to losing money, sensitive personal information, or even having their identities stolen.

For more than two decades, the IRS has published a list known as “The Dirty Dozen” with the goal of raising awareness of tax-related scams and fraud schemes for both taxpayers and tax professionals.  The list is not all-inclusive, but rather changes and evolves from year to year to include what the IRS deems to be the most serious and pervasive fraud methods and occurrences of that time.  Many tax fraud schemes and methods, such as the impersonation of charitable organizations, phishing, identity theft, and return preparer fraud first appeared over a decade ago and have ma