Minnesota residents who had hoped to file their 2014 tax returns from the comfort of their home offices using TurboTax will need to find another alternative. The state's Department of Revenue announced in a conference call last night that it's no longer accepting returns filed using Intuit's online program after two taxpayers called Wednesday to complain they were alerted that returns had already been filed under their names when they logged in, CBS Minnesota reports. When the department pored over already-submitted returns that had come through TurboTax, officials found "potentially fraudulent activity," which led to the shutdown. Tax professionals will still be permitted to file returns using Intuit's professional-geared programs. "We do not take this step lightly," the department said in last night's call.
State officials are now scouring "a couple of thousand" other TurboTax-submitted returns to see what else pops up. "If we identify a problem, we will contact the taxpayer," the revenue commissioner tells the Star Tribune, adding that the department's systems had not been infiltrated and that the state has a "robust fraudulent protection system in place." Officials are working with Intuit to see if there were security issues on its end. Minnesota isn't the only state reporting anomalies: The Utah State Tax Commission issued a statement yesterday that its own internal examination has found 28 fraudulent returns submitted by third-party filers, and that 18 other states are experiencing something similar, the Pioneer Press reports. (One of the biggest tax fraud cases in Oregon was by a TurboTax filer.)
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