Identity thieves are getting better at what they do. In response, the IRS convened a Security Summit back in March 2016 to brainstorm various ways to stop the crooks. Just this past fall, the IRS, along with state tax officials and the private sector tax industry, announced a series of steps to stem tax ID theft and related refund fraud, including the sharing of 20 new used to validate tax returns in 2017. The good news? This information exchange should help validate the authenticity of taxpayers and the entries on tax returns in their names, tripping up identity thieves and other potential fraudsters. IRS Commissioner John Koskinen says the added security measures shouldn’t be a sea change for filers. The bad news? The new process is likely to slow the IRS’ processing of returns, and that could mean some delays in issuing refunds. It just goes to show that identity theft can impact even those whose identities haven’t been stolen outright. Just this past fall, the IRS, along with state tax pieces of taxpayer filing data that will be stolen outright.