Protecting employee data during tax season

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Protecting Employee Data during Tax Season
Data privacy is a primary task for companies
today, but that attention is often focused on
customers. And employees are apparently not all
that confident that employers are doing a good
job of protecting their personal Data is crucial
through During Tax Season. A huge number of
customers succumb to fraud to tax-related data
every year. In case it transpires more workers
inside your business organization, the results
are even worse than getting deferred refunds.
Whoever is influenced by this kind of data theft
will burn through numerous hours of record
administrative work, sending messages, making
calls, etc. to get out of such a disastrous
situation. This additional paperwork, along with
the worries of encountering an exceptionally huge
personal incident prompts, would harm the
employee's performance on the work front too. It
can lead to lost efficiency and even self-doubt.
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Tax data theft can happen anywhere be it home or
your workplace. Cybercriminals directly target
the Human Resource and finance departments to get
the company's financial data. This can be done
through with W-2 phishing messages or emails, con
artists calling your workers professing to be
someone who you would give out the information
to. Their deeds are well planned, and there are
full chances of you falling prey to them if you
do not exercise safety measures and careful
treatment of tax-related data. Nonetheless,
there are three particular ways that Human
Resources and supervisory groups can help
guarantee that their workers securely document
their tax data.

1. Educating the Employees about the possible risks
   and safety measures
2. Spread conscious awareness about the possibility
   of such incidents among the employees
3. Offer certain incentives to the employees if they
   abide by the security regulations and deadlines
   provided

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EDUCATING THE EMPLOYEES ABOUT THE POSSIBLE RISKS
AND SAFETY MEASURES
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• The individuals working in the Human Resource
  Management, Finance, and accounting departments
  stand at the highest risk of tax-related data
  fraud. What's more, in the case that they fall
  prey to the trick of the thief, they can uncover
  a huge amount of crucial data and put the
  employees of the business organization at risk,
  all at once.
• Coordinating with individuals from the
  Information Technology and Information Security
  teams to train the employees on how to avoid this
  kind of data theft is the best possible help you
  can offer. Educate them on the possible instances
  which can lead to data fraud and train them to
  distinguish a fraudulent message or email from a
  regular one.
• From the viewpoint of the entire organization,
  share the best safety methods with workers on
  how they can maintain a safe distance from
  falling prey to any kind of tax-related data
  theft on an individual level.
• Here are five points that should definitely be
  kept in mind.
• Document your income tax returns as ahead of
  schedule as you can. Also, it is always
  advisable to file them through an electronic
  medium if feasible.

• Authentic and genuine Internal Revenue Service
  never communicates through electronically
  generated mails. In case any employee receives
  one, instruct them to delete it then and there
  to avoid any chances of data theft.

• The easiest method for scammers to conduct data
  fraud id through phone calls. You must not
  provide any tax-related or financial information
  on a phone call, even if the person on the other
  side says that they are a part of the
  organization. Always verify the identity and
  only then share your data with someone.

• On the off chance that you are filing your taxes
  through a new agency or payroll software, you
  must always verify the authenticity before
  providing them any data of yours.

• You must always be connected through a secured
  network connection at the time of filing your
  tax returns. This can avoid various chances of
  tax data fraud with any individual or
  organization.

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SPREAD CONSCIOUS AWARENESS ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY
OF SUCH INCIDENTS AMONG THE EMPLOYEES It must
be noted that all cases of tax data fraud do not
take place online. Most low budget scammers
still use cheap methods like fraud calling, email
fishing, email attachments with viruses, etc. to
conduct such crimes and acquire the financial
data of any individual. Whenever you are sending
out the W-2 forms in the organization, make sure
that you inform all your employees about the
same. In such a scenario, they can immediately
raise a complaint in case they do not receive
theirs, and hence a prompt action can be taken
to safeguard the employee's data. Making
employees aware is extremely important. But there
is one thing which is even more important. It
would be best if you kept yourself aware of the
methods and techniques used by the scammers to
avoid any incidents of data theft. Always
keep yourself updated, and then you can update
the employees about the same. The Internal
Revenue Service refreshes its customer alarms
typically from time to time, depending upon the
reports they get from individuals and law
enforcement organizations. OFFER CERTAIN
INCENTIVES TO THE EMPLOYEES IF THEY ABIDE BY THE
SECURITY REGULATIONS AND DEADLINES
PROVIDED Numerous business organizations have
started giving valuable advantages to ensure
that the employees are filing their tax returns
through an appropriate channel and doing that
within the given deadline. One method of doing
this successfully is by joining hands with
finance or payroll management software that is
verified and trusted with experience. Every
individual employee can file their tax returns
through this payroll management software, which
is verified and suggested by the organization.
This will ensure uniformity as well as reduce
the risk of tax data fraud. You can offer such a
service either completely paid or offer it at a
discounted rate. The latter will encourage the
employees to use the same. Apart from this, you
can offer independent software for tax filing at
discounted prices to reduce the risk of such
incidents. Another service that is being offered
by several organizations is protection
against identity theft. This type of service is
anticipated to be provided by 63 of the
directors by the year 2021.
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Conclusion An organization must safeguard its
employees from any data theft at any given point
of time. It would be best to educate and inform
the individuals working for you about the
possibility of such threats to their data. Be
aware of any possibilities of such incidents,
especially during the tax season. Keeping in mind
the points discussed above, we are sure that you
will be successful in securing your employees
against any tax data frauds.