ACTR is a proponent of public-private partnerships between government and industry, including the IRS Security Summit and the IRS Free File Program. The Security Summit was first convened by the IRS in 2015 to combat and prevent the crime of identity theft tax refund fraud. ACTR proactively engaged with the IRS to devise and implement strategies to prevent such fraud. ACTR also was instrumental in helping to establish the Information Sharing and Analysis Center on Identity Theft Tax Refund Fraud (ISAC-ITTRF), which brought together stakeholders from across the tax administration ecosystem to combat this criminal activity. To date, this federal-state-industry partnership has seen tremendous results and reduced levels of identity theft tax refund fraud by 80 percent.
The IRS Free File Program is a public-private partnership between the IRS and private-industry tax preparers through which qualifying middle- and low-income American taxpayers can file their federal and state income taxes at no charge. Since its inception in 2003, approximately 65 million federal income tax returns have been filed through the program, saving taxpayers nearly $2 billion (a conservative estimate) in tax preparation and filing fees. In addition, millions of state income tax returns have been prepared and filed for free through parallel state Free File programs. This past year, taxpayer use of Free File increased by more than 50 percent, and millions more used Free File to receive Economic Impact Payments (EIPs).
