Before You Turn Over Your Records, Ask!

A call to the District Attorney’s Consumer Protection Line highlighted an issue that anyone using a tax preparer should consider.  The caller had used the same tax preparer for several years, but that preparer died recently.  No one could tell them how they could obtain their old tax records or what was being done to protect them.  A visit to the former tax preparer’s office found the office locked and numerous records and files visible through the windows. 

Unsecured personal and business records are an identity thief’s gold mine.  Businesses that collect and keep customers’ personal identifying information have a responsibility to take every precaution to protect those records; but consumers also have a responsibility to safeguard their information.  If someone is going to prepare your tax return for you, you still have the responsibility and the right to ascertain what happens to those records once they leave your hands.  Here are some questions you should be asking anyone to whom you give your personal identifying information:

1. How do you store my information? 

2. Are files locked in a secure filing cabinet? 

3. If kept on a computer, what kind of protection do you have on that computer? (passwords, data encryption, firewall, malware and virus protection, etc.)?

4. Who has access to that information?

5. Have you done criminal background checks on anyone who has access to my information, and do you do regular updates on the background check?

6. Are my records ever stored on a laptop and do they ever leave this office? 

7. If your business closes, what plan has been created to insure that my records are either returned to me immediately or properly destroyed?